On my Way to Save the World
by NaginiSKD3
Summary: Post-OotP HPDM Draco becomes a spy and now he can’t stand his old friends, though he’s unable to show it. And a bit of RWHG is making Harry feel isolated. Harry and Draco start spending time together. A man of few morals, Draco tries to corrupt Harry.
1. Appreciate your concern

**Title:** On my Way to Save the World  
**Author name:** NaginiSKD3  
**Category:** Action/Adventure, Romance  
**This Story Includes:** Dark Magic, Harry/Draco, and Hermione/Ron  
**Rating:** R for sexual situations, violence, and language  
**Spoilers:** SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP  
**Summary:** Post-OotP HPDM Draco becomes a spy for the light and can't stand his old friends though he's unable to show it. A bit of RWHG is making Harry feel isolated. Harry and Draco start spending time together. Being a man of few morals Draco attempts to corrupt Harry. Slash ensues.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and various publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Warning: This is Slash! You have been warned if you are still reading it and you don't like slash is your own damn fault. **

**Chapter One: Appreciate Your Concern**

On a fine Sunday morning just after pouring her coffee and buttering her bread Mrs. Penelope Capperwallence sat down for her breakfast and searched the table for the morning news. When she failed to find the paper it became apparent that her husband, Mr. Sebastian M. Capperwallence, had not left it out for her. Having been married to the man for twelve years you may think that she would have known about her husbands habit of sleeping in on Sundays but she had forgotten. Mrs. Capperwallence could be quite the scatterbrain at times. Laughing at her mistake she placed her coffee next to her buttered toast and went upstairs to put on her fuzzy slippers and bathrobe.

With her feet shod and robe tie knotted she smiled affectionately at the sleeping Mr. Capperwallence and returned downstairs.

Stepping out into the crisp morning air she took a moment to stand on her porch and look over at her neighbors.

The neighbors of Mrs. Capperwallence were as normal as neighbors could be. There was a husband, Mr. Vernon Dursley, who was rather red and rotund - much larger than Mr. Capperwallence. There was also a wife, Mrs. Petunia Dursley, who was a very clean and skinny woman, quite the opposite of her hefty husband. And also a son, Dudley, who according to Mr. Capperwallence was a large rude ball bouncing around with blond hair atop it. Mrs. Capperwallence sometimes wondered how Mr. Dursley had managed the feat of not crushing Mrs. Dursley under his beefy form whilst they were producing Dudley.

But that was only idle musing on the part of Mrs. Capperwallence. She really wasn't very fond of her neighbors, normal though they may be. You see Mrs. Capperwallence was a very perceptive woman, a very perceptive woman indeed. Particularly on the subject of what others thought of her. She was quite aware that Mrs. Dursley looked upon her kitchen with scorn, turning up her pointed nose at the dirty dishes in Mrs. Capperwallence's sink. Sitting down at the table and peering at her perfectly clean teacup with an air of distaste. Now Mrs. Capperwallence would never admit it but whenever she had Mrs. Dursley over for tea it left a faint aftertaste of dirty socks in her mouth and completely spoiled her afternoon.

A sickly aftertaste was not the only off putting thing about the Dursleys. There was something strange going on in that house and though Mrs. Capperwallence was by no means a snoop she did often wonder what was causing her to suspect that more was going on behind those doors than the Dursleys let on.

Perhaps it had to do with the other boy, the one no one talked about. Supposedly he was incurably criminal. Mrs. Dursleys sister had died and the family had graciously accepted the responsibility of caring for young Harry. Harry Potter, thought Mrs. Capperwallence, was quite an interesting young child. He was skinny, much like Mrs. Dursley, and had wonderfully tousled black hair. Often Mrs. Capperwallence wished she could just place her hand on the boy's head and ruffle his black mop until it stood on end. Now this inclination may have seemed strange to others but Mrs. Capperwallence gave the small wish little thought.

Last summer Mrs. Capperwallence recalled how often she had seen him. He had spent countless amounts of time out and about in the yard but since returning from his boarding school Mrs. Capperwallence had seen neither hide nor hair of the boy.

Sighing to herself and resigning to put the mystery of the Dursleys to rest Mrs. Capperwallence left her porch and went to collect her newspaper at the end of the drive. Bending down to pick up the bundle Mrs. Capperwallence heard what she thought was the roar of an enraged walrus coming through the window of the Dursleys kitchen.

Extremely perplexed and slightly disturbed by the unusual racket Mrs. Capperwallence quickly picked up her paper and returned to the safety of her porch. Giving one last worried glance to the home of her neighbors Mrs. Capperwallence was prepared to go inside when the startling shriek of an ostrich sounded out.

Now Mrs. Capperwallence was no snoop, she would not be poking her head over the azalea bushes to spy on her neighbors and she was also by no means an old prude who would stomp over to someone else's house to tell them to keep their noise down at this time in the morning but Mrs. Capperwallence simply could not contain her curiosity and was compelled by forces greater than herself to walk hesitantly across the dewy lawn and rap three times on the Dursleys front door.

What happened next would live in Mrs. Capperwallence's memory forever as the strangest thing to ever happen on the street of Privet Drive in all her years living there.

* * *

Harry Potter had woken up two hours early in the twin bed of Dudley's second bedroom. Having had no problems with Voldermort since last year Harry found himself wishing that they might stat up again if only to end the confusion and rumors, if only to give him something to think about besides the many thoughts that were always crowded in the back of his mind waiting to come forth. Another reason Harry wished he could have had a vision last night was that everything else would surely take second priority. With the distraction of a vision nothing could have happen today but five or six frantic owls being sent and a welcomed cancellation of plans. As it was noting had happened to stop today from happening and he could feel that this was going to be the worst day ever. Even worse than his last visit to Dumbledore´s office, and that was saying a lot. Harry wished he could just crawl back into bed put the ratty gray pillow over his head and not wake up till Monday. Harry slammed himself back and bounced a bit on the spring mattress before he tried to make himself fall back asleep.

Today was the fifth day of summer, the first Sunday of holidays, and five days and six nights from the last time he would ever have to see the Dursleys. It was also the day that the Black estates and fortune were to be legally turned over into his care and possession. At about a quarter till the advanced guard would be arriving by floo to escort him to Gringotts bank so that he could fill out the necessary forms and sign the proper documents. The only thing that could have been worse than the final reminder that Sirius was gone was if it had gone to the press. Dumbledore had stopped that from happening so fast that Rita Skeeter had gone cross-eyed for a good five seconds.

Harry hadn't even known about Sirius' will until he had received a very strange letter from Rita Skeeter. Rita had somehow gotten wind of the news from a goblin informant who had over heard a friend talking about the necessary transactions. Thinking that he had already known she had written to Harry on the first day of the holidays asking for another exclusive interview. Harry had been extremely confused by the request and a bit taken aback by how tactless it was. When he wrote to Dumbledore asking for details not an hour later another letter had been sent calling Harry to the Leaky Cauldron.

Not ten minutes after Harry had read the letter the advanced guard had swept into the Dursleys home through a temporary floo connection arranged by an Order member working in the transportation department. The Dursleys were not pleased. And when Harry had emerged from the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron the scene of a Dumbledore explaining to Rita exactly why she could not have an exclusive interview with Harry greeted him. Rita looked like a dear in caught in the headlights, her eyes as wide as a bug's behind her horn-rimmed glasses.

Harry walked around the table to stand behind Rita and saw exactly why she looked so stunned. Dumbledore´s cheerful blue eyes were like eerie twin fires of burning ice. Apparently Rita had tried to press the issue and Dumbledore had not been pleased. Absolutely and by no means would any information even remotely related to the Order HQ would ever be leaked to the press. Rita, it seemed, had been recruited by the Order.

After Rita had left in a bit of a daze apologizing profusely for her inconsideration Dumbledore had sat Harry down and explained the situation. Sirius, having no heir of his own, had chosen Harry to inherit the Black family fortunes instead of it being redistributed among his death eater cousins or left in the hands of the ministry. Harry had readily accepted the terms that it remain HQ for the Order and also remain under Dumbledore´s Fidelus Charm. Harry wouldn't have had it any other way and though he was sure this was just the last nail in Sirius's coffin he was still numb to the situation and couldn't gather up the strength to break down and cry.

It wasn't until he was back at the Dursleys and had woken up from a dream that night that it really hit Harry. In the dream Sirius had been calling him son and they had lived in a renovated Grimuldian Place together, like a family, him Sirius and Buckbeak an odd but loving family. The dream was made even worse by the fact that Harry had woken up expecting Sirius to be making breakfast for him. Two seconds after realizing that he was is Dudley's second bedroom, Sirius was dead, and he would be owning the house in less than a weeks time it really finally hit him. He would be inheriting Sirius house because Sirius was dead and didn't live there anymore.

Harry thanked his lucky stars that the media had found itself a new story that very day. Azkaban had been broken into and the Murder of Lucius Malfoy was the new front page. It seemed that Voldermort didn't take kindly to disgraced and useless politicians. Lucius Malfoy had failed and been captured then killed by those he was loyal too. If Voldermort didn't blanch at killing his own most loyal followers what would stop him from killing absolutely everyone else. Apparently the rest of the wizarding world shared this sentiment.

Harry had been surprised to see a surly Draco Malfoy and a weeping Narcissa standing at her son's shoulder staring at him from the front page as he munched charred toast made for him by Aunt Petunia. The second day of summer and he had to see Malfoys ugly face while he was at the breakfast table again.

Harry was surprised that Rita had written the article and he wondered how much Malfoy had to pay her to twist such blatant lies for him Skeeter painted the remaining Malfoy's as a family in mourning. The article read as if Malfoy and his mother had been as shocked as the rest of the community when it was learned that Lucius had always been a Death Eater by choice. Harry wondered how many had actually believed the rather weak cover story of Lucius having been under the _impirus_. But the story had gotten Lucius off the first time so Harry relented in his sarcasm when he realized that it enough people had been fooled into believing it to allow Lucius the freedom to remain operating at the ministry. No one will believe this shit now, though Harry, Rita must have been put under the _impirus_ herself to write such a stupid article. Trying to tell the public that Malfoy hadn't known his own father was a Death Eater is completely out there.

But when the sorrowful articles continued to appear in the paper Harry saw that most of the public bought it. Malfoy had a clear name and as far as anyone was concerned he was a boy who had been deceived by his parent and then had been forced to go through the trauma of having said deceiving parent die. What a pity Malfoy was now the sole owner of the well known Malfoy fortune. What a pity Malfoy's murderous, racist, evil son of a bitch father was put to rest before he could cause any more pain and suffering. What a pity Malfoy was now free to go and pick up right where his father had left off. Fucking press.

But then two days later before the shock of Lucius Malfoy's death had settled the paper was once again in a frenzy busy covering former Minister Fudge's resignation. It had happened just last Wednesday and was still making front-page news in the _Prophet_. When the public had read that Fudge knew of Voldermort's return and had refused to protect them they were appalled and began immediately demanding his forced resignation. Harry wished he could feel bad for the former Minister, he almost felt a sort of strange empathy towards the ruined man. Lord knew Harry had been experienced the bad side of the wizarding populace's fickle loyalties. How often had Harry been loved one day as the savior of the wizarding world and then despised the next all at the whim of the press. What would they make of him inheriting the fortune of a mass murderer?

Who knew, Harry thought to himself, it would be up to Rita. Harry was astonished by the rash way most of the wizarding world reacted to any sort of upheaval. But for once at least they were being told the truth. Harry had heard the saying from somewhere "Crowds are stupid" or something like that. Judging from experience he had to agree. Weather the crowd was acting for positive or negative, acting on truth or lies, they were usually acting on the wishes of someone else.

Just like Harry had been when he had gathered up the DA to go dashing off into danger and landing right into Voldermort's hands. Harry tried to stop himself before he connected that thought to Sirius. Fudge had brought this upon himself. Hadn't Dumbledore told him at the end of fourth year that he could either be remembered as a great minister or make a horrible mistake and be ruined for the rest of his carrier? Fudge was a fool and Harry was glad that he was out of office before he could make anymore disastrous mistakes that might cost them the war.

This was how Harry's thoughts had been going in circles all summer everything lead back to Sirius. After front page article revealing the truth about Voldermort the paper became filled with an endless array of speculations and rumors. The paper was filled with wild gossip far-fetched enough to earn itself a page in the _Quibbler_. Before he could stop himself thinking about the _Quibbler_ had reminded Harry of that article they had printed about Sirius.

Almost anything could make Harry think of Sirius. Writing to the guard at the end of every day reminded him of the Order, which Sirius had been a part of. Watching the muggle news reminded him of third year summer when Sirius' picture had appeared on the TV one night. Seeing black dogs and men with long black Harry caused Harry to pause before he remembered. When would Harry ever stop seeing Sirius wherever he turned? When would he stop looking for him? Even the near thought of escaping the Dursleys forever couldn't cheer him up because where would he be going if not to the house that Sirius had willed to him.

Harry had almost been fine at the end of the year. Surrounded by friends who loved him and could keep his mind of Sirius. But had the hole in his chest really healed so fast? Had he really accepted that when he returned to Grimuldian Place for the summer Sirius wouldn't be there to greet him? It had finally sunken in when he had been staring out the car window for an hour: He would _never_ see Sirius again. No matter that he still expected to it would always hit him a moment later that the only things left of Sirius were memories and those paled in comparison to having the real thing.

Ron and Hermiones daily letters had been comforting at first but Harry could tell they were soon running out of things to say when they began repeating them selves every time in the last paragraph.

_We'll see you soon._

_We miss you._

_It'll get better._

_Don't worry._

By the third day of those same sentiments the words had become hollow and Harry couldn't help feeling that he was so separated from his friends. Along with the realization that Sirius was truly gone Harry had also learned to accept another thing, a thing that proved to be almost as devastating. Along with mourning for Sirius Harry also had the weight of the prophecy hovering over him like an oppressive gray cloud.

The knowledge that if Harry didn't kill the most powerful wizard in the world then no could was crushing. If Harry failed Voldermort would become immortal and invincible and absolutely no one would be able to stop him. If Harry didn't kill the wizard who survived his own death every last one of the six billion muggles on the planet would be tortured and killed and the Wizarding world enslaved.

Accepting this did little bolster Harry's self-confidence. Last year when he had not been chosen as a perfect he had reasoned that he was such a better choice than Ron. That he had faced the Dark Lord twice, three if you counted Tom Riddle, and four if you counted the time when Harry was a baby. Four times the Dark Lord had gone after Harry and been the one to lose. Why shouldn't Harry have been made perfect? What a stupid child he had been.

Moping around because his friend got some well-deserved recognition. Whining because he was jealous and feeling forsaken because people had stopped patting him on the back for his recklessness and dumb luck.

Harry could now see his past trials for what they were. It had been like riding a bike with training wheels. Sure you were making the pedals go but the only reason you weren't falling on you face was because it wasn't a real bike. You had help, two extra wheels holding you up all the time. Everyone was always holding Harry up in front of some big challenge and after a bit of hard work and some reckless antics he won and got his praise. But did they ever set him a challenge that they knew he couldn't face? If Dumbledore had ever doubted that Harry was unable to face the challenge wouldn't he have tried just a bit harder to stop him? Would he really have allowed Harry such leniency if he didn't think Harry could handle it? It was like bowling with bumpers to stop your ball from going into the gutter.

He should have learned his lesson when Cedric died at the end of fourth year but what had he done? Thrown into a situation he was not ready for Harry had relied on blind bravery and sheer dumb luck to get him out of it. The wizard's duel he been a complete mockery. Voldermort's simple mistake had lost him the fight not Harry's bravery or strength. Harry's wizarding skill had nothing to do with winning that fight and how dare he use that to validate his claims for more praise. When compared to the battle Harry had witness between Dumbledore and Voldermort the duel he fought was a silly parody. If it hadn't been for Voldermort's simple mistake Harry would most definitely been dead because there was no way a fourth year mediocre student could have gone toe to toe with the most powerful wizard in so many ages and expected to survive.

Harry wasn't ready to face Voldermort on an even playing field and he didn't know if he ever would be. The only consolation he could offer those expecting him to win was that when the time came ready or not he would try. He would go toe to toe with Voldermort for as many times as it took one of them to die and he would give everything he had to ensure that Voldermort didn't succeed. Harry would do everything he could because it really was his responsibility now.

When had he ever paused before putting himself before danger for others no matter how horrible the person had been to him? Even if the wizarding world hated him every other month, supported dick heads like Fudge and Malfoy when the press told them too, and were a rather large flock of directionless geese when put into large groups. None of them deserved the evil that Voldermort would bring upon the world and it was Harry's responsibility to stop it because literally no one else could and he would most probably die. Harry would die but he would die trying and really that was all he could expect from himself. If he failed it was his fault the whole world went to hell.

How in the world was he supposed to stop Voldermort? How do you stop someone whose body can die but whose spirit can't be destroyed? How can you even relate to Hermione who is worried about O.W.L.S. and what Ron thinks of her new hair cut, or Ron who is completely unaware and wonders if Hermione's still writing to Krum because in Ron's own round about way that's him saying he's in love with Hermione. How could Harry ever tell them and expect them to understand?

It was still comforting reading about things that don't define the fate of the world. It was nice to worry about O.W.L.S. scores and slow cooking crushes little things that are still important. It's nice to forget that someday you have to become a murder or be killed along with the rest of the world. It's nice to put that in the back of you head and lock it next to the box that holds the last memory of Sirius falling though the veil. But those memories and that knowledge were still there and every time Harry closes his eyes to go to sleep he sees it.

He knows he sees it but he can't remember it in the morning. That would have been a good thing if the memories weren't being regurgitated throughout the day in flashes of horror and the oppressive weight of responsibility or the absolute terror that he may prove to be a failure. How do you relate to your friends about that?

By the time Harry's alarm clock when off he had worked himself into one of the deepest funks he'd ever been in. One should not think about so many bad things in such a short span of time. Harry got out of bed and groped on the side dresser for his glasses. Not that it did much good since his lights were off. Once they were on Harry walked to his closet like a zombie and began throwing clothes on without looking at them. He could have put on Dudley's orange fuzzy sweater and cared about it. Checking to see that his wand was at his side Harry was done.

It was times like these when absolutely nothing seemed to have a sunny side that Harry had to ask himself why shit happened to him. Why his parents had to die, why he had to live with the most horrible relatives possible, why he had to be surrounded by expectations, why it was him that everyone thought they owned a piece of, why it was him everyone hated without cause or praised without really understanding that he didn't deserve it. Why he had to stop Voldermort, why he had to die, why it would all be his fault, why he had to suck it up and sacrifice himself anyway. Couldn't someone sacrifice themselves for him? Just once? Hadn't he put up with enough? Couldn't he just be normal, live with his parents, have not expectations or responsibility or guilt ... couldn't Voldermort have chosen Neville to do this too?

Harry waited and when the guilt came from wanting his most selfish wish to be true he wasn't surprised. It was all good and well to wish your parents weren't dead but to wish you troubles onto someone else's shoulders was pointless and selfish and Harry knew he didn't really want to put this burden on Neville... it was just, sometimes he wondered how things could have been so much easier, so much different. Neville could be the boy who lived and Harry would just be Harry a happy child raised by his loving parents in a wizarding world free of Voldermort.

Harry trudged down the stairs and into the kitchen like a dead man walking. Knowing what would come in the morning it had taken him hours to get to sleep and losing two hours because he woke up early to make himself depressed wasn't helping ether.

Harry had one other wish that wasn't as selfish as pushing his burdens on someone else. He wished for one abstract person to want to help him. One person, just one person to understand his problems, to care only about him and to fuck with everyone else, someone to help and someone from whom Harry could accept the help offered. Not Ron or Hermione who didn't understand and who he would never wish half of his problems on, not Dumbledore who was concerned about him but had his own burdens and agendas to take care of, not Sirius who had truly cared about just him but had died and left him anyway. No one could help. Harry was alone in his troubles and alone in his responsibility and people may care but they can't help and they can never understand.

Harry sat down across from Dudley and stared down at the cheerful but fuck ugly placemat. Ron's foul mouth was rubbing of on him and he was just beginning to notice it. A very un-cheerful smile flickered onto Harry's and he had every intention of slamming his head down onto the hard wood table. Before he could give himself a concussion his spiteful Aunt thrust a plate of burnt toast in front of him and waited for her thanks.

Harry might as well give up. He should have expected this but it was like a slap in the face. Every morning that fat pig Dudley got ham and bacon and eggs and sausage and every morning Harry got charred stale toast. You'd think after making him the same thing for fifteen some years she'd learn not to char his toast. He was on the brink of tears and his aunt who's his only flesh and blood the dregs of a family meant to love and support him gives him burnt fucking toast.

Harry could feel tears welling up in his eyes and really it shouldn't hurt this much when he was used to being unloved for his whole life but it was just too much.

"My life is horrible." Harry whispered in a quivering voice surprising himself with the sound. He hadn't meant to say it out loud, it was a stupid, selfish, childish thing to say but at the moment he couldn't think of anyone who's life could possibly be worse than his. He was sure no one else had heard his moment of clichéd teenaged angst. He was sure that he should just learn to grow up and stop whining but after saying it he felt almost liberated. Like if he could just accept that his life sucked he could move on and worry about other things. Harry wasn't about to cry any more, in fact he was more likely to throw the plate back in his Aunts ugly face.

"What did you say boy?" Aunt Petunia must have heard him. She was scowling at him and it made her horse face so much uglier than it usually was that Harry abandoned his plate throwing fantasy and simply let the anger go.

"Nothing." He muttered and looked up at his aunt without moving his head.

"Good, you nasty ungrateful little child." Aunt Petunia turned on her heals and Dudley sniggered.

An odd sense of calm washed over Harry, really, it was no use caring so why try. "Thanks for the burnt fucking toast." He muttered under his breath only for the reason that he wanted to and it really didn't matter what happened because today couldn't get any worse unless Voldermort showed up to kill him.

Dudley gasped, surprised at hearing Harry curse. Harry sent his cousin a scornful glare then realized that must have been the first real time he had cursed out loud. It wasn't like he was Hermione who was as strict as McGonagall when it came to unseemly behavior, he just didn't do it much that was all. And really could you have expected him not to pick up on a few choice words after spending years of time with Ron who had grown up with the linguistic influence of four older brothers (Percy, of course, didn't curse), and having gone to school with two of said brothers as well as a host of other older and more foul mouthed peers not to mention Lee Jordan who took every opportunity he got to scandalized McGonagall with obscenities shouted during the particularly exciting games. Really what could you expect? Harry had picked up a few words and a tendency to use them every now and then when he was thinking about something especially blood boiling but he had never said them out loud. Harry shrugged it off and poked at his burnt toast.

Before Harry could register it Dudley had jumped on the opportunity to get him in trouble. "MUM! Mum! Did you hear what Harry said?" But Aunt Petunia had already left the kitchen, "MUM!"

"What is it Dudley?" Aunt Petunia poked her long neck around the corner just as if it was an azalea bush.

"Mum did you hear what Harry said?" Harry was currently rolling his eyes.

"What has that awful nuisance said to my little Dudleydumpkins?"

Harry snorted. "Dudleydumpkins?"

"Shut your trap! Mum he wasn't talking about me he said it to you!"

"WHAT!?" Aunt Petunia's simpering voice reached screeching levels.

"He said – "

"I was thanking you!" Harry butted in before Dudley could cause any more trouble for him. "Thanking you for the burnt toast. I mean for the great toast! Your toast it the best Aunt Petunia, really nice and crunchy, cleans the teeth."

"That's not what he said mum he's lying!"

"Shut up Dudley."

"You shut up!"

"Boy's stop that." Aunt Petunia chided.

"No, you shut up."

"Shut up!"

"Maybe _you_ should shut up and just stuff your fat face _before I do it for you_!"

"Ha! You're just jealous because all you've got to eat is burnt toast while I get bacon. Well too bad Harry that's just the way things are."

"That's my little Durdurs acting so grown up and mature." Dudley looked dreadfully pleased with himself and Aunt Petunia beamed at her portly son.

Harry grabbed some of Dudley's bacon right off his plate and stuffed in his own mouth. Chewing with his mouth wide open so Dudley could see the bacon disappear down Harry's throat was the almost better than flying. Harry laughed at Dudley's expression. His cousin was horrified; he couldn't believe Harry had violated his plate.

"MUUUUUUUM!!!!" Dudley slammed his fists on the table breaking a leg and causing it to overturn. Plates and food crashed to the floor and broke on the ugly linoleum.

All the racket had finally brought Uncle Vernon from the sitting room. He had the Sunday paper rolled up like a club and looked about ready to slap Harry across the face with it. Harry, for once, could almost say that he deserved to be punished; he had really been acting up something horrible this morning.

"Why are you doing now you terrible nasty FREAK!"

"He stole my food and called mum a bad word!"

"WHAT!?"

"No I didn't! I didn't call her anything you lying pig!" Harry was red in the face, he had done a lot of rather deplorable things this morning but he hadn't done that. "I told her thanks for the burnt toast and that was all. You broke the fucking table Dudley!"

"Don't you use that language around my baby boy!"

"After all your aunts done fore you! Slaving away every morning for your breakfast when she has better things to do than feed a little ingrate freak like yourself!"

"Oh really!" Harry was fed up with this nonsense "You slave away in front of a _toaster_ every morning do you auntie? Carrying the stale bread across the room and pressing a button is really putting yourself out for me. Maybe the job wouldn't be so hard if you didn't _TRY_ to burn it! YOU ONLY MAKE ME BREAKFAST SO THAT YOU CAN BURN MY FUCKING TOAST! Just ONCE I want toast that's not got bloody black bits round the edges. Is it really too much to ask of you?"

"You should be grateful you horrible child," Aunt Petunia shook her boney finger as she scolded him before Uncle Vernon interrupted.

"– After all the thing's this family's done for you – "

"– Grateful that I take the time every morning to make you breakfast – "

"– The cloths on your back and the roof over your head – "

"– Well not anymore! From now on you can starve!"

"– And you can get out of this house if you don't like it!"

"OH SHUT UP!" Harry yelled at the top of his lungs. "YOU ARE _SO_ BLOODY _FUCKING_ HORRIBLE ITS UBELIEVABLE!!! YOU GO OUT OF YOU'RE WAY TO MAKE ME MISERABLE. YOU ENJOY IT!!! YOU HATE ME! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN KEEP ME THIS LONG IF YOU HATE ME SO MUCH?! YOU'RE NOT EVEN SORRY FOR WHAT YOU DO, ARE YOU? ARE YOU!!!"

Harry had brandished his wand at some point and was gripping it tightly with white knuckles. Dangerous magic was radiating from him in a haze of white-hot energy making the air of the little kitchen charged and volatile.

"_ARE YOU SORRY!!_" Harry demanded to know for the third time but the Dursleys didn't dare answer.

"Your just scared for yourselves." Harry was breathing heavily, his voice gone raw. "THAT'S ALL YOU ARE!!! _I CAN'T STAND YOU!!"_

The last shout echoed throughout the silent kitchen and Harry's gaze fell upon the Dursleys. They all looked scared for their lives and for some reason it didn't make Harry any more sorry for what he had said, in fact he probably could have said a lot more to them. They huddled together in a corner in front of the cabinets but the little show of family togetherness only served to disgust Harry. Really, would they have even thought to do that for him? Looking at the Dursleys made Harry's vision go red, remembering all that he had gone through because of them, all that he had put up with.

Harry's moral compass must have broken at that moment because whatever it was keeping him in check failed and Harry absolutely despised the people before him. He hated them beyond any hate he had ever known before. If Voldermort had entered the kitchen and killed them just then Harry would be ashamed, though only in hindsight, to say that he might not have given so much as a deadpanned 'no, don't.' on their behalf.

Bereft of moral compass and enraged by the people cowering before him Harry swish flicked his wand at each and transfigured Uncle Vernon into a walrus, Aunt Petunia into an ostrich, and Dudley into the ever-classic pot bellied pig. Really, that aught to teach them to treat little orphaned wizards just a bit nicer.

Harry was kidding himself to think that, they would never learn. They would only ever hate him or be afraid of him and on that note all the anger drained out of him and the magic dissipated with it. "I'm leaving." Harry addressed the bunch of animals cowering in the kitchen.

The animals said nothing. Well, if Harry couldn't make them better people at least he could shut them up.

Harry looked at what he had done and felt nothing. In the back of his mind he was quite aware that he could be expelled for this and that he really did deserve it. He had just purposefully transfigured his family into a pack of wild animals, not that it was much improvement mind you but still. There were laws against the un-consenting transfiguration of humans, or so Malfoy had claimed after The Amazing Bouncing Ferret Incident.

Harry wondered why he didn't care about what he had done for all of two seconds before he left the kitchen and made his way upstairs.

As soon as the door shut it sounded like all hell broke lose. Harry heard a great roar from his uncle and a couple of crashes.

Not really stopping to wonder at what his relatives were doing with themselves Harry gathered up his trunk and other things, which hadn't strayed far since it was a small room and they only had less than a week to get very far. This was oddly reminiscent to third year though it was the morning and he had actually meant to do what had happened. Harry heard a great crash and the distressed squawking of his aunt but didn't pause as he folded up the last of his socks and closed the trunk. He was dragging it down the stairs when he began hearing what really must have been the most absurd sounds that had come from a kitchen on any Sunday morning in the history of Privet Drive.

Struck by acute curiosity Harry couldn't resist one last peek. Behind the kitchen door was a pig chowing down on the soggy bacon scattered on the floor (Harry was sure if that was cannibalism but it was a bit disturbing none the less), a walrus trying to climb through the window above the sink but having busted and bent the sink as well as several pipes in its vie for escape had only managed to flood the kitchen, and an ostrich looking very dazed as if it had hit it's head repeatedly on the ceiling fan. Said fan had fallen to the floor and was sending up sparks getting dangerously close to the growing puddle of water.

Harry surveyed the hurricane of pandemonium that had formerly been the kitchen and wondered if he should stop them all from being electrocuted but then there was a knock at the door and he knew he should really take care of that first.

Harry opened the door and was greeted by the Dursleys very perplexed neighbored. "Hello Mrs. Capperwallence," Harry addressed the plain looking middle-aged woman. "It's nice to see you. I'm sorry but I was really just about to leave." Harry turned his back on the woman and collected his trunk. "Excuse me." He waited for her to move out of the way and then dragged his trunk across the lawn and dropping it beside him sat down on the curb and faced the street ignoring the sounds of a zoo gone wild that continued to come from the kitchen behind him.

"Oh my word!" Harry heard the excited neighbor remark. "What it the world... OOH!!"

There was a flash of light and louder more riotous animal racket was heard from the kitchen then abruptly stopped. The water must have reached the fan, Harry thought to himself with little emotion.

Now that everything was quiet Harry took a deep breath of chilly morning air and felt the moisture from the grass seeping into his jeans. Privet Drive was deserted and row upon row of identical houses and small shaggy laws all aligned in neat orderly rows greeted his sight. The calmness of the ordinary street, its muted colors lit by fog distilled light, settled the last of Harry's anger. Surely everyone must know what he had been up to by now and Harry wondered if expulsion or the advanced guard would arrive first but remained sedated at the thought of facing either.

Behind him Harry could hear the sound of bathroom slippers making soft crunchy sounds as they crossed the morning lawn. "Well, they've stopped that right quick..." Mrs. Capperwallence was now standing at Harry's side and when he glanced up at her he noticed that she was dressed in a pink bathrobe and blue fuzzy slippers "That was awfully strange. Bizarre even."

"Yes it was." Harry agreed calmly.

"Do you – Do you know what happened?" Mrs. Capperwallence was clutching her newspaper tightly to her chest causing wrinkles and cresses in the black and white paper.

"Oh... uh..." Harry had never really spoken to Mrs. Capperwallence before but he knew she had tea with Aunt Petunia every now and then. She seemed a nice enough lady. "It's nothing really, why don't you just forget about it."

"Shouldn't... shouldn't someone do something? Should I call animal control?"

"Really, Mrs. Capperwallence everything will go back to normal once I'm gone." Harry said resignedly. Mrs. Capperwallence dropped the defensive set of her rounded shoulders and relaxed her death grip on the news. Truly, she was taking all this reasonably well for a muggle.

"Are you going away? Will you be back?"

"Yes, and no."

"Hm... that's too bad." She stood beside Harry quietly for a moment or two and turned then turned to face the house. "You know that ostrich looked quite a bit like your Aunt Petunia."

"Er..."

"Well, have a nice time wherever you're going Harry." Mrs. Capperwallence turned back and gave him a nice enough smile. "I think this might be a dream but just incase it's real and I never see you again..."

And then Mrs. Capperwallence did something quite unexpected. She reached down and fluffed Harry's hair affectionately before leaving him sitting on the curb.

"Bye Harry!" She called out once she had reached her porch.

"Bye Mrs. Capperwallence." Harry said goodbye forever to the lady he had only just met a minute ago. Mrs. Capperwallence nodded to him and then went back inside her house leaving Harry feeling oddly reassured that not all muggles were as horrible or selfish as the Dursleys. Some were just regular people who didn't often get involved but were still nice when you met them. Harry never expected to see Mrs. Capperwallence again, and would never expected anything more from her than a friendly smile if he did but that was more than the Dursleys had ever shown him in fifteen years and it made him feel better to have someone who knew absolutely nothing about him ruffle his hair. Harry almost felt bad about what he had done to the Dursleys but they were knocked out and he really preferred them to stay that way.

"Harry!"

Harry turned back to the house and saw Remus, Mad-eye, and Tonks emerge from the front door.

"Harry what happened in there?" Tonks asked jerking her thumb back at the house. "There's animals and water everywhere. You're house is a mess."

"Er... there... well those are my relatives. I expect I'll be receiving an expulsion notice soon."

"Harry what happened? Did you do that?" Remus bent down on his haunches and gazed at Harry who was still sitting on the curb.

"Yes. Those are the Dursleys, I transfigured them into animals because I got mad and I can't really say I'm sorry for doing it at the time."

"Was it you who knocked them out Harry?" Remus tried to remain calm and peered into Harry's eyes as if searching for something.

"No, the water on the ground and the lamp did that... it's like standing in a puddle and lightning striking beside you but you still get shocked yourself. The lamp fell into the water which they were all standing in so they got electrocuted."

"Hm." Remus nodded understandingly. "I took muggle studies I know what you're talking about, but Harry..."

"Can we not talk about this? Am I getting expelled?"

"No Harry the ministry is much too occupied with organizing an effective offensive force for countering Voldermort's attacks to really focus on the underaged use of magic right now. It seems you're actions have slipped though the cracks."

"We'll get someone out here to fix this up." Said Mad-eye in his gruff scratchy voice. "Come back inside and we'll floo to the Leaky Cauldron." With that Mad-eye hobbled his way back into the house and Harry, Tonks, and Remus followed.

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

**Author's Note**

Hey, thanks for reading! Please review if you liked the story. Any suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. **I'm in search of an experienced Beta, oh hell any good Beta at all would be loved!** So if anyone wants the job I'd absolutely love you. I read my chapters over myself before posting them but I am still apprehensive about sending them out without a good beta's opinion.

This story is rated R for a reason as you can tell right away from the language used in the first chapter... please do not read it if you are underaged.

Again, **I am in great need of a beta!!!** All reviews are loved to death. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.


	2. Watching you, watching me

**Title:** On my Way to Save the World  
**Author name:** NaginiSKD3  
**Category:** Action/Adventure, Romance  
**This Story** **Includes:** Dark Magic, Harry/Draco, and Hermione/Ron  
**Rating:** R for sexual situations, violence, and language  
**Spoilers:** SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP  
**Summary: **Post-OotP HPDM Draco becomes a spy for the light and can't stand his old friends though he's unable to show it. A bit of RWHG is making Harry feel isolated. Harry and Draco start spending time together. Being a man of few morals Draco attempts to corrupt Harry. Slash ensues.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and various publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Warning: This is Slash! You have been warned if you are still reading it and you don't like slash is your own damn fault. **

**Chapter two: Watching you watching me**

"Draco." Snape looked down scornfully at his young charge and received a petulant glower for his troubles. He released a long-suffering huff and hardened his glare. "Listen to me Draco. You are to stay exactly where you are until the goblin comes to escort you, you will sign the papers and then return to this seat and wait for me. Under no circumstances will you leave this seat before the goblin arrives. You are not to go _anywhere_ unless the goblin is escorting you to the aforementioned room, restricted areas are defined as everywhere except your seat at it's _current_ position and the room in which you are to sign the forms. Do you understand me Draco or are we going to have problems?"

_Merlin, this is embarrassing. Knock over a few volatile ingredients in the apothecary and suddenly you lose all trust in me don't you Sev?_ "I understand you perfectly Sev, I'm not two years old."

"I remember you at two and you haven't changed one bit Draco."

"Go away, you're being boring now and I'm not interested in baby stories."

"If I find that you have strayed from my guidelines Draco you will sorely regret it. Goodbye you ungrateful nuisance I will be back in four hours."

"Where are you going?"

If looks could kill Draco would be a pile of ashes on the red velvet cushion of his seat. "To another apothecary."

"Oh. Bye Sev."

Sev gave Draco one last disdainful look before leaving.

Draco slumped down in the high backed chair and watched the black clad form of Severus Snape stalk out of Gringotts in a most menacing fashion with black robes billowing in his wake. The drama queen had dropped Draco off at Gringotts four hours early and it was going to be a long wait. Really if Sev didn't trust him why was he leaving Draco sitting in the middle of Gringotts unsupervised and left to his own devices? Probably put a tracking potion in his pumpkin juice this morning. Yes that probably was exactly the case.

Quite sure that his every move was being watched Draco looked at his surroundings and seethed. Unable to leave the chair he spent his time holding one-sided starring matches with the goblins and pulling faces at them if they stared back. This was a highly amusing exercise since goblins were incurably serious and had a tendency to become grouchy at the slightest offense. Draco watched as the one he had been looking at broke its second quill and laughed. Sadly this activity could really only be amusing for the first five or so minutes and then became tedious so Draco stopped after fifteen.

You'd think they could move up his meeting so that he wouldn't have to wait forever and a day to sign some stupid papers that could just as easily been brought to him at the Manor. But no, tradition must be upheld and transactions such as these must be taken care of within the boundaries of the bank for the magic to activate.

Draco slumped down further in his chair. Malfoy's were not meant to slump but no one was in the bank this morning except the goblins and who cared what they thought? That was when another idea struck him. Locking his arms into the space below the armrests of the chair Draco lowered himself down until he was almost sitting on the floor and could rest his shoulders on the seat cushion. Spreading his lean legs as far away from the chair as he could without toppling over Draco stopped his movements and began attempting to return to his former seated position. This proved to be far more challenging than the first task and pulled the front tails of his shirt away from his pants but he managed it nonetheless. _Wow, what fun! _He thought sarcastically.

He un-tucked the rest of his shirt because it was really no use keeping it half and half and then spent a good deal of time picking at his nails, running his hands though his hair, straitening his collar, crossing and folding his legs up in all manner of ways and arranging his robes after each new position. He was currently crouching with his feet on the seat and engaged in the action of chewing his lip while staring at the ceiling. After a moment of that he shot his legs forward and landed on the seat with a soft poof.

"God, can't you sit still for one minute?" an annoyed voice asked from beside him.

Draco whipped around at the sound of the voice but it wasn't an irritated goblin or his escort like he had expected. It was Potter.

"Potter." Draco shot Potter a modified version of the glare he used for Sev. This version was devoid of all playfulness. "How long have you been watching me?"

"Since Snape left." Harry stepped in front of Draco's chair with his arms crossed over his chest. "You really do act like a two year old."

"Shut up." Draco snapped. "Sitting here for hours is tedious."

Harry checked his watch. "It's been twenty minutes Malfoy."

"Exactly. What are you doing here?"

"Well it's none of you're business but I'm waiting for a meeting."

"And _why_ were you hiding?"

"What is this twenty questions? I wasn't hiding I was standing on the other side of that pillar; if you didn't bother to look it's not my fault. You'll never be able to make a good little servant for Voldermort if you don't improve those skills of observation. Constant vigilance Malfoy, I'm sure it works just as well for Death eaters as it dose for Aurors."

"Watch your step Potter I'm not a Death Eater."

"Sure you aren't and my name's not Harry Potter its Ignatius Trout."

"Well Ignatius if you didn't want to talk me why did you start?" Draco was very sure that banter with Potter would be much more entertaining the annoying the goblins but why in the world had Wonder Boy started talking to him?

"Shut up Malfoy."

"Original Trout, real original. So, why are you talking to me if you don't like Death Eaters?"

"So you admit it!" Potter was pointing a finger straight at Draco's nose.

"No," Draco said slowly for the mentally impaired namely Potter. "You think I'm a death eater so why would you talk to me if you were so convinced?"

"You were annoying me, I came over hear to tell you to sit still."

Draco glared bloody death at Potter and started tapping his foot on the marble floor. "And what made you think I'd listen to you? Enjoy staring at me Potter, planning on becoming a spy?" A funny look passed over Potter's face but then quickly disappeared behind a mask of contempt. Interesting, so Potter had been watching him hu...

"I wasn't spying." Potter muttered under his breath.

Draco shook his head "You were watching me while hiding behind a pillar that happens to fit perfectly into what the definition of spying _is_, ignoramus." Potter glared. _Oops made him mad can't have the Golden Boy running off in a righteous huff too soon._ "Now if you're done spying on me why don't you leave? Or would you rather sit down and talk to me?" Draco tried to smile for insurance against the leave comment but found that it had turned into an odd sort of smirk. Potter blushed anyways. _My, my, this is getting interesting_.

"Uh..." a man of many words St. Potter wasn't.

"Grab a chair, they're comfortable enough."

"I'd rather not."

"So where's – " _I will resist all Weasel and Mudblood comments I will resist all Weasel and Mudblood comments..._ "Fine." Draco interrupted himself sharply. "Have it your way. Now tell me why you were looking at me."

"You don't give up do you? Just let it go Malfoy."

"No, on both accounts, now speak or leave me alone."

"If you must know I wasn't hiding or spying on you but you kept moving around and it's bloody distracting, especially that stretchy thing you were doing." Another slight blush dusted across Potter's cheeks. What the hell was going on here?

"Stretch? – Oh that!" Hm... Potter do you fancy me? Very interesting. "If I'm so annoying why didn't you look away?"

"You were making noise too."

"Then ignore it or go somewhere else. These aren't good reasons for staring at me for twenty minutes."

"Shut up Malfoy. I'm going to sit somewhere else."

"Good, do that." The words were out of Draco's mouth before he could stop them and then Potter had turned his back and was walking across to the other side of the room where he sat down on a small plush couch and looked everywhere but at Draco.

_What in the world had all that been about?_ Potter was staring and blushing and Draco was entertaining thoughts that Wonder Boy might have the hots for him. Well if this was the case whole new levels of Potter Baiting and Humiliation had suddenly become possible. Apparently the Boy Who Lived played on _that_ side of the Quidditch field. Draco smirked a bit then realized that it had been his first movement since Potter left. Glancing over at Potter Draco saw that he was also sitting similarly still and staring at him, again.

"You're looking at me Potter." Draco shouted across the room. Almost a dozen goblin heads swiveled in his direction and gave him disapproving glares.

"How would you know I was looking at you if you hadn't been looking at me too?"

"I can look at you as much as I want. You're the one who was spying on me a minute ago so I've got a right to see if you're trying to do it again you pervert."

"I wasn't spying on you Malfoy!"

"Sure you weren't. Now stop looking at me." Draco stared at Potter until the boy turned around and directed his gaze to the bank entrance.

If truth be told Potter wasn't all that bad looking, if he didn't have such a shity personality Draco might have been tempted to actually start flirting in earnest but since things were not like that at all flirting was just one more fun way to drive Potter up a wall.

Draco continued to stare at Potter but when the boy refused to look back Draco began fidgeting again. His father had always told him not to fidget. A sharp rap with that stupid silver cane of his always followed the command.

Draco had been four and he was too short for his feet to reach the floor so his father had a small box placed under his feet so that he wouldn't be able to swinging them under the table. But the box was hollow and he couldn't keep from tapping his feet at a dinner, it made a lot of noise. His Father had told him to stop it immediately and Draco had tried. He had wanted to please his father so he had tried to keep still but when he let his mind wander away from the task his foot began unconsciously tapping again. His father had suddenly appeared at Draco's side and before he could even notice him his father had slammed the butt of his cane onto Draco's left foot so hard that it made a strange church like noise. Draco didn't dare make a sound. Lucius hadn't said anything after that and neither had his mother. Draco watched his father turn and stride back to his seat and the family finishing the meal in silence.

Lucius had broken four bones in his son's foot, which he later healed himself but only after having had a long talk with young Draco about what would happen if he ever fidgeted again.

After that day Draco had been a very still child. He had been taught not to cry, not to talk before spoken to, not to whine, not to touch the things in Father's study, not to slouch in his seat, what the appropriate topics for polite conversation were, not to bother people at inappropriate moments, never to slurp his soup, and to absolutely _never_ talk back to his father. He had learned all that by the age of five and it hadn't been until sometime during the age of eleven that he realized nothing would happen to him if he did those things while his father wasn't present.

Because you see Lucius had always been present in Draco's life. He was like an omnipotent force always aware of what Draco was doing and ready to chastise him if he stepped out of line.

Learning not to fidget was one of the few early lessons Draco could recall actually being taught, others just came as second nature and if he thought about exactly _why_ he never spoke much while in his father's presence the lack of memory gave Draco a very unsettling feeling. Before it became second nature not to fidget Draco had added it to the list of things not to do that he repeated constantly in his head. After a year at Hogwarts he realized that his father wasn't there. His father wasn't there to look over his shoulder and he could fidget and slouch to his hearts content and not one of the other Slytherins gave a shit. At first he had been wary of Sev reporting back to Lucius but soon it became clear that as long as he wasn't being annoying to Sev himself then Sev didn't care and would never report it back to Lucius anyway.

Sadly though, Draco could never again enjoy slouching and fidgeting and being overly obnoxious because it wasn't an easy thing to do. He had to consciously remember that Lucius wasn't there to stop him and he had to actually think constantly about tapping his feet if he wanted to remain doing so. In the first week after realizing Lucius wasn't there Draco had made a point of being as loud and obnoxious as he possible could and while it was fun to get away with it was tedious and thankless work rapping your knuckles on a desk for hours and when he realized that doing so had made him miss an entire lesson of transfigurations Draco had been very disappointed to learn that slouching and fidgeting and being obnoxious were only good for keeping his mind occupied.

Harry stalked across the polished floor of Gringotts and sat down on an overstuffed couch. Talking to Malfoy had been a mistake. Staring at Malfoy had also been a mistake but Harry hadn't been able to resist doing either.

After He had emerged from the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron Tonks had bombarded Harry with questions about why and how he had transfigured his family into animals. When Harry hadn't wanted to explain his reasons and couldn't remember the incantation he used he became snappish and told her very directly to stop it. She had looked hurt and hadn't said anything more than that he must have been pretty advanced in transfiguration or pretty out of control to have managed such a thing.

Remus had told him that the guard wouldn't be present with him at Gringotts since it was almost as well guarded as Hogwarts and the goblins didn't appreciate loiterers who had no business there. Since Harry had declined a trip to Diagon alley they had dropped him off at the bank saying they would return to escort him to Grimmauld Place in about four hours.

After all three had left Harry had sat down with his back against a pillar and stared off into space trying to keep his mind off the Dursleys and everything that had led up to his departure from number 4.

Imagine his surprise when he heard Snape and Malfoy exchanging words. If he turned his head he could see Malfoy slouching in a chair scowling but he couldn't see Snape. He hadn't needed to see Snape because he could already imagine the look on his face by the sound of his voice. He was talking to Malfoy in almost exactly the same tone he used with Harry when he failed at correctly brewing a potion, cold condescendence and contempt in equal parts. Snape was talking to Malfoy like he was a troublesome child instead of the a sixteen year old and Harry found this fitting since in his opinion Malfoy acted like a spoiled brat no matter what his age.

Harry's assumptions had been proven true when the blond Slytherin had begun annoying the goblins. Harry had to stop himself from laughing out loud twice because of Malfoy's antics. After the first time he chided himself for finding the obnoxious slime ball even remotely funny. He was a Death Eater a racist. At the age of twelve he had wished for Hermione's death and he would always be a bully and a snob. The second time Harry had almost laughed he refused to think anything of it but continued watching Malfoy anyway.

It wasn't that he had been spying on Malfoy, really was the boy doing anything worth watching? And he wasn't hiding he just didn't feel like moving or being seen. He had sat down there before Malfoy had even come into Gringotts and if he didn't move was that really hiding?

When Malfoy had slid out of his chair gracefully arching his back and revealing to Harry every last line of his defined abs Harry had felt that the building was becoming a bit smaller and couldn't take his eyes away. What a stupid thing to do. Malfoy was so immature it was annoying. Why was he doing that?

And then Malfoy had slid back up into his seat and Harry had been spellbound by the sight of the blond annoyance un-tucking the rest of his shirt and revealing a pale line of flesh. Harry had then watched as he had twisted himself around in the seat stretching around nonchalantly managing to look graceful and uninterested instead of awkward and anxious, as Harry would have.

Malfoy wouldn't stop moving and it was driving Harry spare so Harry had gone over there to tell him to stop it, to make him stop distracting Harry with his constant irritating movements.

And really Harry hadn't meant the conversation to go on for so long but he couldn't stop. He had to keep defending himself against Malfoy and the annoying prat just wouldn't let anything go. Harry was glad he was on the other side of the room now. Far away from the slime ball.

Harry chanced one last look at the boy across the room and was startled when he locked eyes with him.

"You're looking at me Potter." Malfoy shouted from across the room. Almost a dozen goblin heads swiveled in his direction and gave him disapproving glares.

"How would you know I was looking at you if you hadn't been looking at me too?" Why couldn't Harry just have ignored the nuisance?

"I can look at you as much as I want. You're the one who was spying on me minute ago so I've got a right to see if you're trying to do it again."

"I wasn't spying on you Malfoy!"

"Sure you weren't. Now stop looking at me."

Harry finally did something he had intended to and broke the staring match by turning away from Malfoy and watching the entrance for people coming in. It wasn't until Harry realized that no one would be coming in this morning that he felt Malfoy's eyes on the back of his head and was sure that he was being watched. Harry's stomach growled reminding him that the only food he had gotten all day had been a handful of Dudley's greasy bacon.

Harry could feel Malfoy's stare burning into the back of his head and when he whipped around to see Malfoy sitting up ram rod strait in his chair with an eerie stillness staring at him unwaveringly. Harry decided that he liked fidgety obnoxious Malfoy better still Malfoy was unnerving.

Potter was staring at him again. "Can't keep your eyes off me can you?"

Draco wanted to march over to Potter and do something to him though he wasn't sure what but it would definitely have to be something to really ruffle Potters feathers.

"You were staring at me."

"That's of no consequence I already told you I have the right to stare at you." Potter snorted and Draco could hear it from across the large room. "If you want to stare at me fine just come over here and do it where I can ridicule you without straining my voice." The goblins all began to look like angry librarians just before they kicked you out of the library for talking and then enchanted your books to hit you over the head, repeatedly.

"I think I'll stay here thanks."

"You have to make thing's difficult don't you?"

"Why are you even talking to me?"

"Because" Draco shrugged his shoulders and slumped bonelessly in his chair. "It's better than doing nothing and as you've probably heard I can't leave this chair for any reason short of an apocalypse."

For the longest time Potter looked anywhere but at Draco and refused to talk to him. Maybe Potter was racking his brain for any form of communication besides his brand of badly executed banter.

"So, er... Uh... do you have a meeting too?" _Stop it Potter your head might explode with the effort._

"Yes, I have to sign the papers that changed all the vaults over to my name."

"Vault's?"

Draco gave Potter a disbelieving glance, could he really be that dense? "Vault's Potter. Where are we?"

"Gringotts."

"And what _is_ Gringotts Potter? Come on, I know you can do it!"

"Malfoy I know we're in a bank full of vault's!"

"Well if it's so obvious to you why did you question the fact that the Malfoy's have business with their vault's when they enter a _bank_?"

"Shut up!"

"Don't get your knickers in a twist Potter I'm only joking."

"You aren't funny Malfoy." Well that was a matter of opinion...

"Some people simply can't appreciate that others are on a higher level of brain activity than they are."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're too dumb to tell when I'm just kidding." _Or flirting for my own entertainment._

"Oh and are you kidding now?" _You're really asking for it aren't you Potter? Well I can be gracious. Kill them with kindness Draco._

"Of course I am. I've been kidding this entire conversation and you've been grouchy and insulting." _As well as a little hot and bothered, HA!_

"Whatever" _Don't look so surly Potter it doesn't suit your face._ "How can you be joking when your father died last week and your getting vaults that used to be his changed to your name? The Prophet –"

"– If you believe everything you read in the Prophet Potter then your dumber than I thought you were and that was not a joke."

"Of course I don't believe to Prophet Malfoy, you're a death eater and you knew damn well your father was one too_!" Death to the imbecile!!!_ "I just want to know how you can sit here making jokes so soon after his death, it thought you'd be at least a little sorry the bastard was gone."

This was getting a bit personal. Fuck Potter. "Oh really? And how torn up were you over his death? Show me one picture from the prophet where I'm crying over that bastard? You said it Potter he was a bastard and I'm not sorry that he's a dead bastard now. I'll see you later." Ignoring Snape's expressed instructions to never leave the chair come hell or high water Draco sat up and strode over to the nearest goblins desk demanding that a meeting room be opened for his use immediately_. Fucking Potter and his stupid questions, who dose he think he is?_

"You're an hour early." The goblin grumbled and stated at him.

"Yes, I know that, but I have been waiting long enough so move my meeting up. Now!"

"As you wish." The little goblin got out of his seat and disappeared behind the desks for a second before emerging through a goblin sized swinging door at floor level. "This way." Draco followed the goblin to the back of the bank and into one of the side doors.

**To Be Continued...**


	3. Curriosity Killed the Eardrums

**Title:** On my Way to Save the World  
**Author name:** NaginiSKD3  
**Category:** Action/Adventure, Romance  
**This Story** **Includes:** Dark Magic, Harry/Draco, Spy!Draco, Hermione/Ron  
**Rating:** R for sexual situations, violence, and language  
**Spoilers:** SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP  
**Summary: **Post-OotP HPDM Draco becomes a spy for the light and can't stand his old friends though he's unable to show it. A bit of RWHG is making Harry feel isolated. Harry and Draco start spending time together. Being a man of few morals Draco attempts to corrupt Harry. Slash ensues.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and various publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Warning: This is Slash! You have been warned at least three times now if you are still reading it is your own damn fault.**

**Chapter Three: Curiosity kills the eardrums**

Harry exited Gringotts flanked by Remus and Tonks with Mad-Eye leading the way and they walked down the busy London streets in silence until they reached Grimmauld Place.

Harry was the first to break the silence with a question that had been weighing on his mind since the journey had begun. "When are Ron and Hermione coming?"

Remus answered him. "Since you'll be staying here before anyone expected the Weaslys have agreed to come early, they'll arrive by Wednesday. There's going the be an Order meeting later tonight, Dumbledore asks that you attend."

"Really?"

"He thinks you're ready."

Mad-eye had opened the door and already entered the house. Harry found the place to be extremely quiet without the Weaslys running around but it was also a good deal cleaner.

"Kreacher finally doing his job?" Harry couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice, He wasn't sure what he though of Kreacher anymore but decided that it would probably be best if he ignored the traitorous house elf.

"No Harry, Dumbledore paid Dobby extra to give the place a thorough cleaning. I don't think he and Kreacher got along well. I'll levitate your things up to your room for you. Is that all you're taking?" Remus looked at Harry's one-trunk and empty birdcage before twirling his wand and directing them upstairs.

"That's really all I need, all that's left on Privet Dr. are some ugly old cloths of Dudley's."

"We'll take you to Diagon Ally, when your ready, and you can get some cloths of your own."

"I'd like that."

Harry followed his trunk up the stairs and showed Remus to the room he had used last year. After Remus left he began examining the few things in his possession. Five years worth of old school books, a brush that couldn't tame his hair, School cloaks and uniforms, Quidditch uniform cloak pads and gloves, magical socks from Dobby, ink quills and parchment, a sneaker scope, a pile of old letters, a snitch alarm clock, Bits of string and wire (Complements of the Dursleys) His parents photo album, a toothbrush, worn out Omnoculars and four leaf clover, Clippings from the Prophet, Weasly sweaters, the mini dragon, a money bag and Gringotts vault keys, Sirius's knife, a collection of quidditch books, wand and broom servicing kits, His DA Galleon, the Marauders Map, a shrunken potions cauldron, a set of balances, a pointy black hat which he never wore, Owl treats, his fathers invisibility Cloak , and underneath it all the broken mirror that he left inside the trunk. Theses were the only things he had collected thought out his life that belonged to him. Not hand-me-downs from the Dursleys and no muggle cloths except the pair of oversized jeans, equally oversized T-shirt, and black sneakers he had on his back. Harry though about throwing away the bits of string and wire that had served as the Dursleys Christmas presents but decided against it for some reason.

Something was missing; Harry's Firebolt was not in the chest because in the days after Sirius' death the life long ban from quidditch that Umbridge placed on him hadn't seemed so important. Harry wondered whom he hated more, Umbridge, Voldermort, Wormtail, or the Dursleys.

Harry stacked the books on a bookshelf, put the parchment ink and quills on his desk, hung up the cloths on old hangers in the closet, and put some of his other items on the dresser trying to make the room look like it was his. He felt like a guest staying at a hotel.

Unable to do anything else Harry laid down on his bed and slept.

* * *

Spending the day with Sev was turning out to be a nightmare. First the apothecary incident – and he hadn't even done that on purpose, then the bank conversations with Potter, then the very long meeting at the bank, followed by a longer lecture from Sev, and now he was going to have to go see Potter again.

Well, not actually Potter in particular but Potter would be there and that was bad enough. What was going to happen now? Would Potter start trying to convert him to the light, think he was lying, or ignore him completely?

"Now" Sev interrupted Draco's thoughts "when we get there you are not to make any noise. I know you couldn't follow my instructions at the bank but it is imperative that you listen to me for once today, Draco, don't cause any trouble."

"I don't think I should make any promises today's turning out to be a bad day for me."

"Draco if you cause one more accident today I'll skin you alive and use you for potions ingredients."

"Don't make idle threats Sev."

"I wasn't. Now follow me inside and don't touch anything."

Draco shrugged behind Sev's back and watched as the man disappeared. Draco looked around the streets and saw nothing but muggle buildings full of muggle cloths and strange looking apparatuses.

"SEV!" Draco yelled just as a fat lady with too many shopping backs hobbled by. The lady gave him a perturbed glance then continued on.

"Draco what is the matter with you?" Sev appeared out to have walked from the space between the two shops but Draco was reluctant to admit that had really happened and soon forgot it had happened.

"Uh... I don't think – did something happen?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. The Fidelus Charm protects this building. Memorize this." Sev searched around his layers of black cloth and finally pulled out a small piece of parchment addressed to Draco.

"Thanks, a lot."  
"If I didn't have to worry about your careless antics every time I turn my back maybe I would be able to remember the more important things."

Draco ignored Sev by studying the piece of parchment. "I'm done."

"Then follow me and try not to get lost this time you incompetent irritation."

"I'm so glad somebody care's about me." Draco laced his words with a simpering smile and big doe eyes. Sev snorted with his abnormally large nose.

On entering Number twelve the first thing Draco noticed was the row of dead house elf heads. "Weird." Draco commented to himself and was glared into silence by Sev.

"Now stay put, don't touch anything, and try not to make much noise." Once Draco had nodded his head Sev left the entrance hall and Draco was alone in the dimly lit room surrounded by mounted house elf heads and a strange pair of moth eaten red velvet floor length curtains that sounded like they were snoring. Draco walked closer to the curtains on silent feet absolutely dieing to know what was behind them.

What he really wanted to do was pull them back to see what was snoring but no, Sev told him not to touch anything and he didn't need to annoy his godfather anymore today causing more problems was definitely a bad idea. His mother was a former Black and he knew they shared the same pureblood beliefs as the Malfoys or his father would have never been betrothed to Narcissa. It was very likely that the Blacks had many Dark Arts artifacts that could be dangerous when touched but really, who would be stupid enough to place an artifact of the Dark Arts right in their entrance hall? They obviously couldn't be dangerous so maybe they were just decorative. Number twelve was probably riddled with little enchanted objects, such as these non-dangerous mysterious snoring curtains, just like the Manor.

Of course the Manor was much larger and had better lighting than Grimmauld. In the Manor there were tons upon tons of things just like the snoring curtains, they probably had a pair in some old forgotten hall of the west wing and his pair would be better kept than these nasty old things too. Almost everything in the Manor had some magical property. The tea cups bit your pinky if you didn't hold it out, the sofa tied to pull you into the cushions if you slouched, the clocks yelled "you're late!" if you didn't get to the dinning hall by seven, chairs in the dinning hall pulled themselves out for you but would always try to trip you up if they could. Come to think of it there was a lot of vicious furniture in the Manor. Any time you tripped over the foot stole or stubbed your toe on the couch it was probably because the thing had moved those extra few inches just to get in your way. The last foot stole in Draco's room had tried that and found itself so severely chastised that it was afraid to return from the observatory and wouldn't let the house elves move it back to his room.

The furniture hadn't tripped Draco since Lucius died. The entire Manor and all of the objects within it reacted to their master's mood. All the doors, even the locked ones, would open for the master, the chair at the head of the table would slide out for no one but the master, the clocks would yell at anyone who came to dinner only after the master himself had taken his seat because the master was never late, no teacup dared to bit the masters finger and if the couch ever attempted to eat him it knew it would be burned in the great fireplace.

Draco decided that if the green room couch ever showed carnivorous tendencies towards him again he would happily hold a formal execution for it by making all the house elves round up every last couch in the Manor, place them on the lawn in auditorium style seating, and force them to witness as he chopped the bamboo couch to bits with an ax and then used them in a bonfire. In fact he might just do that tomorrow because Draco absolutely hated the green room couch.

Most of the magical objects in the manor had more useful purposes than vindictive seating. Take, for example, the library. The library at the Manor was a humongous two story room almost as big as the grand dinning hall, contained over seven thousand books and almost two hundred hidden rare illegal books on the Dark Arts which could only be accessed by entering a magical room that was not even physically connected to the Mansion and only by the master when he entered the fireplace after the fire had been put out, all the curtains had drawn, the doors locked, and all lanterns and candles extinguished in specific order.

But the normal books in the library were all enchanted by a very complex but extremely useful charm. All a person searching for a specific book title or subject had to do was say the title or state the subject aloud after sitting down at the round table with the circle of light in the center and the book or books they had requested would appear in the middle of the circle. The individual books would also flip to the appropriate page when you asked them a question. There was no incantation required and all of it was said in English since you should be very careful about speaking Latin around the books.

Draco wondered what purpose the snoring curtains could possibly serve. Even though some of the furniture in the Manor was enchanted you could still sit on it most of the time, all of the magical objects served some purpose but what could snoring curtains placed in the middle of a hall be for?

Draco prodded the curtains gently and nothing happened, he placed his ear against them and only heard nasal snoring, he though about what Sev had told him took a step back. Beside the dark burgundy curtains was an elaborate grimy rope with dulled gold accents and ratty tassels. Whatever the curtains did they probably did it when you pulled that rope, Draco reasoned, so as long as he didn't pull the rope nothing could happen, right? Sev wouldn't get mad and if he just had a little peak under the curtains his curiosity would be cured keeping him from committing more serious crimes and everybody won.

Draco slipped his hand between the folds and found where the two curtains met, he slowly drew one back revealing a sliver of darkness, pulling back further so that the light form the chandelier could reveal what was waiting in the darkness Draco was surprised to see a drooling old woman with a taut stretched face and an ugly black hat slightly askew upon her head. Behind the moth eaten curtains was the full-length portrait of an ancient old witch who was presently leaning against her frame and drooling down the her coaler of her terribly old fashioned starchy black robes. Draco wondered if that was because of the time the portrait had been painted or if it was because the woman was just a fickle old prune. The cloths must have been out of fashion because obviously this was his great aunt Agnes whom his mother said had died a years before he was born. Besides the dated wardrobe and the drool she looked rich.

Why would anyone cover up a portrait with ugly velvet curtains? The woman was definitely a repulsive old hag but why leave her where people could see? If you didn't like to look at the picture get a house elf to move it to some dark corner of the house where no one whet like his father had done with the portrait of cousin Jeffrey.

Great aunt Agnes snorted in her sleep and licked her thin parched lips.

Before letting the curtain swing shut and cover the portrait Draco smirked at the sleeping woman considered waking her up for a chat but decided that he really didn't want to talk. "No beauty contests for you eh, auntie?" Draco muttered "Well, good night and may you never repulse the occupants of this hall or scare small children again."

One yellowed eye snapped opened and suddenly Aunt Agnes was staring right at Draco. "I see you," she spoke to him in a soft rattling whisper "I see you, you horrid, nasty, disrespectful, HEATHEN!" the ratty old curtains flew out of Draco's grasp and flapped around him. "YOU FILTHY, MANNERLESS, IMPETUOUS CHILD! HOW DARE YOU OPEN YOUR FOUL MOUTH IN THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS? WRETCH! LOUSE! SKUNK! ILL-BREED SON OF HARLOTS!"

"NOW YOU WAIT JUST A MINUTE YOU FUCK UGLY OLD HAG! YOU ARE SPEAKING TO THE HEAD OF MALFOY HOUSE! YOU BADLY PAINTED OLD CRONE! HOW DARE_YOU_ SPEAK TOO ME THAT WAY?!

"LIES, VILE LIES FROM THE CHILD OF BILE! POLLUTED MOUTH OF SEWER WASTE! DECIETFUL CHILD OF PARASITES AND RATS! LIES, LIES!" The old woman was mad, screaming loudly and waking up more portraits thought the house until the clamor was deafening and her yellow eyes began to roll as foam came from her mouth and she clawed at the air.

"LOOK AT THIS!!!" Draco punched to portrait and thrust his signet ring into Agnes' face "DO YOU SEE THIS YOU RAGING LUNATIC? I AM DRACO MALFOY, SON OF LUCIUS MALFOY, AND HEIR OF DIABOLUS MALFOY!! YOU INSULT YOUR OWN BLOOD YOU CRAZED BITCH!"

"DRACO!" Sev shouted above the screeching portraits.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING BOY!?" Draco spared a look at where the other voices were coming from and saw that behind Sev stood several people including Mad-eye Moody, one of his distant cousins and Harry Potter all of them looking very angry with him.

"THE BLOOD THE BLACKS WOULD NEVER PRODUCE AN ILL BEGOTEN TRAMP SCALAWAG! FIEND! ROUGE! SON OF DEVILS FLESH!!!" Agnes began a wordless screaming like the sound of someone under Cruciatus and drowned out the angry shouts of the others.

Out of the corner of his eye Mad-eye worked on stunning the frenzied portraits. "SHUT UP YOU BLOODY DEMENTED LOON!" Draco's roar was the only coherent sound able to drowned out the howl of psychotic rage. Sev and the cousin he though was Nymphadora grabbed a flailing curtain each and tried to force them shut.

"LOATHSOM DEGENERATE!! HOW DARE YOU DEBASE MY HOUSE! WORM! VERMIN! FILTY MOUTHED OBSCENEY!!!"

"SHUT! - UP!" Draco bellowed as Sev and Nymphadora finally got hold of the curtains and began to close them over the raging portrait.

"_BASTARD CHILD OF **WHOOORES!!!"** _Agnes shrieked in record braking volume as she bid farewell to her great nephew.

"_MAD OLD UGLY **BITCH!!!"**_

As soon as the curtains closed the house was completely silent except for the quiet rustle of velvet.

"Are you done yet, Draco?" Sev's deep menacing voice sounded like the seething whisper of a dragon when he addressed his godson. Harry's eyebrows disappeared into his mop of black hair, and even the grown Nymphadora looked chastised.

"I'm... sorry?" Draco ventured hesitantly.

Sev took a deep rattling breath and Draco was prepared to curl up and cringe but before he could Sev's nostrils flared in violent fury and his black eye twitched once, then in a sharp swirl of black robes that disturbed the silence with their whip cracking rustle turned and strode away from the scene before he murdered his godson, presumably seeking out small animals to kill instead.

Mad-eye curled his lip and gave a sharp grunt that sounded almost like a dog's then followed Sev at a hobble sans whipping robes.

Draco was alone in the hall with who he thought was his distant cousin and of all people Potter.

"Good one, Malfoy." Potter looked amused.

Draco snarled.

**To Be Continued... (Sooner than a week)**

Quick little authors notes

Sorry the chapter was shorter than others It got really long so I broke it up into two parts and gave them each their own name. Expect another update pretty soon.

Uh... just a little note on chapter 2 when Harry mentions Ignatius Trout that was a little allusion to Maya's fic Underwater Light which is like a total masterpiece among HD fics.

Diabolus Malfoy's name came from the Latin translation of Devil since it keeps with JKR's theme of naming all the Malfoy's like that (i.e. Lucius=Lucifer and Draco=Dragon or Serpent which is a symbol of the devil.) I tried calling him Satan but that just translates into Satan and then I tried Morning Star but that was just Lucifer so...

As far as Agnes' name goes I just made that up but now that I think about it was that the name of that evil principle from Matilda? Maybe not. Well, it sounded like it fits. Don't be offended if your name's Agnes I'm sure you're a lovely person.

And thanks so much to the wonderful people who reviewed and the great and wonderful Grrr who graciously offered to be my Beta! Love you all!


	4. Double O Draco

**Title:** On my Way to Save the World  
**Author name:** NaginiSKD3  
**Category:** Action/Adventure, Romance  
**This Story** **Includes:** Dark Magic, Harry/Draco, and Hermione/Ron  
**Rating:** R for sexual situations, violence, and language  
**Spoilers:** SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP  
**Summary:** Post-OotP HPDM Draco becomes a spy for the light and can't stand his old friends though he's unable to show it. A bit of RWHG is making Harry feel isolated. Harry and Draco start spending time together. Being a man of few morals Draco attempts to corrupt Harry. Slash ensues.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and various publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Warning: This is Slash! You have been warned if you are still reading it and you don't like slash is your own damn fault.

**Chapter Four: Double O Draco**

Harry had just fallen asleep when someone knocking on his door woke him.

"Harry?" Tonks' voice called to him from the other side of the door.

"Yeah, Tonks?" Harry lifted his head from the pillow and wanted to know if she would go away soon.

"Do you want some lunch?" Harry was just about to tell her no when he heard his stomach growl. He should have grabbed more of Dudley's bacon when he'd had the chance.

"Sure." Harry reluctantly left his bed not even bothering to run his fingers though his wild hair. He hadn't gotten a haircut since last summer when Aunt Petunia stopped insisting he let her sheer it off with the kitchen scissors just to have it grow back to a normal length over night. With no Aunt to keep his hair in line he had let it grow naturally and the result was a somewhat wildly uncontrollable mop top that no brush could tame. Taking into consideration that he had also just acquired a sever case of bed head Harry would have been afraid to look in the mirror if he cared.

"You forget your brush at the Dursley's, Har?" Tonks asked as soon as he opened the door for her.

"My hair's a lost cause and a waste of time, I think I've give up on it completely."

"Well... couldn't do you any more harm I guess." Tonks laughed.

"Thanks."

"You know I'm kidding." Tonks looked at Harry's downcast expression. "I like your hair so much I just might copy it!" Tonks scrunched up her face and suddenly her formerly wavy lime green hair was transformed into a carbon copy of Harry's messy black mop. "So, wha' d'ya think?"

Harry though it looked bizarre seeing his hair on someone else's head and then Tonks' stomach growled and gurgled so loud the combination genuinely made him laugh for the first time since last week. "Thanks Tonks, I needed that." Harry's laughter died down and they both headed downstairs to the kitchen intent on finding food.

"Happy to oblige!" Tonks kept flipping her head back to keep the new hair out of her eyes but was unable to stop it, sing Tonks flipping he head every other step caused Harry to laugh even more, it felt good.

"Careful Tonks, you'll run into something!" Harry shouted when Tonks almost crashed into a hall table that held up an odd shaped blue vase.

"How can you see through this?" She demanded.

"I must have more forehead than you."

"Probably do. "Harry's long hairstyle fell into her eyes again when they were heading downstairs and she tripped down the last two steps and landed on the coarse carpet. "Okay, this hair experiment is a complete failure. Sorry Harry but it's just not working. "

"Now you know how I feel." Harry held out a hand and helped the fallen Tonks get back up on her feet.

Tonks smiled and transformed her hair into sandy blond cornrows. "Much easier to keep outta my eyes now."

Harry considered Tonks' new hairstyle. "Suits you."

"Thanks. Tomato sandwich sound good to you?" Tonks entered the kitchen and started opening shelves and draws searching for food.

"I don't know. Do we have anything edible in here?" Harry started checking bottom cabinets.

"Beats me." Tonks opened a top cabinet and five large pots almost smashed her head but she jumped out of the way and they toppled to the ground with large clangs. Tonks and Harry froze waiting for the portrait of Sirius' mother to wake up and start yelling but much to their relief the shrieking insults never came.

"Maybe try the lower cabinets Tonks." Harry switched to searching the other side of the room and his stomach growled loudly on the way there.

"Good idea. I'll just put these back." Tonks began stacking the pots up.

"Found the pantry!" Harry shouted and began looking though the contents. "Uh... rotten bread, spoiled fruit, ew! Are those pickled pigs feet?"

Tonks came up behind him for a look. "Seems so. Sick."

"What else is in here...?"

"Noting good is gonna come outta this pantry Harry. We can just order out."

"Wizards have take out?"

"Course they do, what do you think I live on? _Me_ _cook_? I'd burn my own house down!"

"But Tonks, this place is protected by the Fidelus charm, how would anyone get to it?" Tonks stomach gurgled.

"Oh, right you are Harry. But damn it I'm starved! Even pickled pigs feet are looking like they're not so bad an option!"

"Don't do it Tonks, be strong. There's got to be _something_ here that's edible." Harry started rummaging deeper in the backs of the pantry shelves.

"There's nothing, when're doomed!" Tonks howled in despair.

"Could you transfigure a pot into some sandwiches?"

"Who do I look like, McGonagall? Unless you want the sandwich to turn back into a pot while you're shitting it out I wouldn't try that!"

"Ugh, gross, Tonks! Thanks for the imagery."

"Sorry Harry but I get cranky when I'm starving."

"LOOK!" Harry shouted from the back of the pantry.

"What?"

"An old package of Christmas crackers."

"What's the date on them?"

"Um... 1943 but then why aren't any open?"

"Probably could get enough people to come to such a cheerful place on Christmas to ever need crackers. Pass the box over Harry those things last forever."

"I sure hope there's candy in some of them." Harry set the brightly colored box of Cribbages Wizarding Crackers on the table and sat down next to Tonks. They both immediately started pulling apart the crackers searching for candy.

By the time they reached one with a pile load of candy they had gotten a dusty old electric blue bowler hat with pictures of pink butterfly's that flapped their wings, a set of singing toothbrushes, a pink and yellow spotted ribbon that tied your hair into a ponytail, a techno colored scarf that kept itself tied around your neck when the wind blew, and a pair of red tap shoes that danced the polka of their own free will though the left keep trying to do the fandango.

"Don't all these things cost a lot?" Harry asked between a mouth load of chocolate frogs.

"Oh no, the charms are simple and wear off after a few hours. See, the shoes are already slowing down." Tonks put the blue and pink bowler on Harry's head. "Look's good on you."

"Thank. God, those shoes are getting annoying." Harry passed her the bag of Berty Botts Everyflavored Beans.

"I got raw trout once you know."

"Ron says Fred got boogie flavored but I think Fred was just joking with him."

"Oh you never know, those Berty Botts folk are a mite sadistic I say."

Harry laughed and tilted the bowler over one eye. "Wish I had a cigar to go with this."

"OH! I got great news."

"What?"

"The Weaslys are gonna stay right after the meeting. Very last minute change of plans."

"That's brilliant! Mrs. Weasly can cook!"

"Oh she can! Lovely Mrs. Weasly and her wonderful cooking."

"I can't believe you wanted to eat the pickled pigs feet."

"I swear they didn't look so bad. It was getting desperate after a while there." Tonks laughed and threw a couple beans in her mouth.

"So what's happening at the meeting?"

"Toffee, fired shrimp, and ketchup. Snape and a new spy are going to report." Tonks tried to wrap the scarf over her head like a turbine but it kept falling apart and into her pile of chocolate frogs so she stopped.

"Really, who's the new spy?"

"Draco Malfoy."

"MALFOY!?" Harry spit out a frog that he had just put in his mouth and watched it bounce of the table to freedom only to be squashed into a chocolate splat under the heal of a dancing shoe. Tonks frowned for the lost little frog. How in the world could _Malfoy_ be a spy? Malfoy was a racist, sadistic, Ferret! He was a little death eater in training who was sure to follow in evil daddy's footprints. If anyone from Harry's year was a Death Eater candidate then it would most certainly be Malfoy and everyone knew it! It must be some sort of ploy; some plot of Voldermort's to get a spy into the order. A spy who the order thought was a spy for them but was really a spy for Voldermort sent to spy on them.

"Yup."

"Malfoy? A spy?"

"So they say."

Maybe it was true. Maybe he was good. Maybe he was a good guy sacrificing his safety for wizarding kind. Harry snorted. Draco Malfoy was a self-centered prick that cared about nothing and no one except himself. He was a cold-hearted bastard who wouldn't rescue a kitten from a tree because it might crumple his robes. What in heaven or hell could motivate Malfoy to put himself out for anyone? Nothing, that's what.

"Draco MALFOY's a spy?"

"I told you that already."

"Sorry, I just can't believe it. I mean, he was at the bank and I admit he was acting a bit off but he was still a slimy git like always. He didn't even care that his father had died!"

Or Maybe He wasn't doing anything for anyone. From what Harry knew of Malfoy the only thing that could cause him to switch sides and put himself in great danger would be if he weren't sure Voldermort would win. But Harry was sure Malfoy believed all that mudblood pureblood racist shit and that was exactly what Voldermort stood for. Of course Malfoy did only care about himself. Would he really risk his life for some grand cause? Would he really risk his own life for anything? The answer was obviously no. Malfoy really didn't care about anything other than himself and that included Voldermort and the Purity of the Wizarding World.

"Do you know why he's become a spy? Did something happen to lessen Voldermort's chances of winning?"

"Please don't say his name! And no, nothing's changed, our chances are still the same and besides that we don't have a clue as to where You-Know-Who is. This is really a good thing to happen you know, it was planned that someone new should come in because everybody in that circle's getting a tad too suspicious of Snape for anyone's tastes."

"What do you mean, this was planned?"

"Well, you know," Tonks lowered her voice to a whisper "You-Know-Who can read peoples minds don't you. Really creepy if you ask me, I don't even want to think about it!"

"I know that, but then how – "

"That's what I'm getting to! Snape's been training him. Taught him Ooclumancy last summer and told us all when he got the Dark Mark some time last week."

"So he IS a Death Eater!" Harry had known it. The little ferret wasn't just a Death eater in training he had pledged his allegiance to Voldermort and taken the dark mark!

"He'll be a spy for the Order after tonight though."

"Do you think he's really a spy Tonks? What in the world would make him become a spy?"

"Yes, Harry I'm quite sure he's a really spy. But nobody's told me why he chose to be one. I guess you'll just have to ask him yourself."

"Oh, ugh! Malfoy, _here_. I've had enough Malfoy interaction in one day to last me the rest of the year. The one good thing about summer with the Dursleys is that I don't have to put up with Snape and Malfoy and on my first day here I'm seeing them both."

"He can't be half as bad as your making him out to be, can he? I remember him from a family reunion back when he was four, this big old horrible thing that lasted hours and was entirely too full of dark wizards and death eaters for my taste, but he was a well-behaved little kid. Really quiet and still."

"Are you sure we're talking about the same person here? Malfoy is an obnoxious pain in the arse, an evil little Ferret, a nasty slime ball! What in the _world_ could make _him_ become a spy?"

Tonks was beginning to look exasperated "How should I know that! Why are you still asking me?"

"Sorry Tonks but it's just so – In second year he was saying all mud blood's should die and after fourth year he was shouting about how Voldermort returned and that Cedric Diggory was the first to die! Are you saying that same little Death Eater in training just marched off and took spy lessons from Snape right after getting what he always wanted? Really can you just give me some speculation? Anything? Because I can't put it together."

"Maybe it was an act, I don't know!" Tonks held her hand up in defense against Harry onslaught.

"Don't defend him! He's a racist bastard and I don't understand why he would suddenly turn tail and become a spy!"

"Calm down Harry. I'm not defending him, I'm just saying, we don't know why he changed his mind."

"Then how do we know we can trust him?" Harry demanded.

"Dumbledore and Snape trust him and I don't like Snape much but he's on our side and he has been since before I was and it's not my place to question him. But most of all I went to school under Dumbledore and I don't doubt him one bit. Knowing Dumbledore trust's Malfoy is good enough for me."

"Dumbledore's not infallible you know." Harry said bitterly thinking about last year as well as how Dumbledore hadn't know Peter Pettigrew was in league with Voldermort or how Crouch was using Polyjuice.

"I know he's not perfect but he comes damn close and that's better than any other option so I'll put my faith in Dumbledore and hope for the best. Harry, I don't know any of the why's I just know the facts and who gave them to me, maybe there's more going on than either of us knows but we'll find that out in good time so just sit tight for now, okay?"

"Fine, but I intend to ask that bastard why he's here."

"Good, you do that." Harry could tell that for the first time Tonks seemed angry with him and so kept quiet. An uncomfortable silence settled over the long table of the kitchen.

"Snape is here." Mad eye announced out of nowhere and Harry was reminded why the old man was still a legend among Aurors. "He brought Malfoy with him."

"Great." Harry said resignedly.

Suddenly from nowhere a stream of insults began sounding out from the entrance hall defining everyone.

"Fuck." Harry covered his ears as the other portrait's joined in.

"At least it wasn't me." Tonks shouted over the din of noise created by Sirius' mother.

To Harry's amazement what sounded like the voice of Malfoy was actually shouting back insults of his own calling her a badly painted old hag. It almost made Harry laugh but that must have been a leftover from his formerly good mood because nothing Malfoy did was amusing. He was an annoying git who had woken up the portrait and all the noise would probably give Harry and everyone else a splitting headache.

Mad-eye, Tonks and Harry rushed out of the kitchen to join Snape at the entrance hall.

Malfoy and the portrait were shrieking and bellowing abuse at each other respectively. Harry could only look on as the pale blond boy became red in the face and flailed his arms violently. Mad eye hobbled around stunning the other paintings but Harry wasn't paying attention. Malfoy's head looked about ready to explode from the effort of making his voice heard above Mrs. Black's and the other family portraits. Finally Harry's trance was broken when Tonks and Snape rushed forward then grabbed the curtains to wrestle them shut while

"Are you done yet, Draco" Snape asked after Malfoy had traded final insults with Mrs. Black.

Malfoy didn't reply but gave a squeak that might have been a 'sorry' and Harry couldn't blame him. Snape sounded ready to kill something.

Unpredictably Snape said nothing but when he turned around nostrils flaring Harry wouldn't have been surprised to see the potions master snort fire from his large nose. Mad eye grunted and hobbled off too but he just looked a little annoyed.

Tonks was biting her bottom lip trying not to grin.

"Good one, Malfoy." Harry smirked. The little Ferret had finally done something worthy of pissing Snape off and Harry was going to relish this time.

Malfoy growled and it was plain to see that the shouting match with Mrs. Black had been a warm up in seething hatred. "Potter." Harry wasn't aware that so much contempt could fit into one word. "What the hell have you got on your head? Is that your idea of fashion? Those glasses aren't just for show then, you really are blind."

Harry remembered He was still wearing the electric blue bowler with the pink butterflies flapping around on it.

"But then again it is covering up your hair so maybe you do know what your doing."

"Shut up Malfoy. At least I'm not stupid enough to fight with portraits."

"But your stupid enough to wear that hat."  
Harry took the hat off because he really was feeling stupid.

"Oh Merlin now your just uncovering your hideous hat head!"

"Shut up Malfoy!" Harry resisted the urge to punch Malfoy in the face as well as the urge to touch his hair.

"Ha! You really are pathetic. Listen to me Potter. Can't you think for yourself? A little insult and you back right down don't you?"

"I do not!"

"Took that hat off pretty quick didn't you? And I bet you want to fix your hair too. Well, let me help you out, nothing could fix your hair short of shaving it off and even then I bet you have misshapen head. Loads of lumps from being dropped as a baby. That might also explain why you're so slow at school."

"Shut up!" Harry yelled.

"See, you cant even come up with a decent argument to defend yourself. Your hopeless Potter and there's nothing for it."

"Stop it!" Tonks broke into the argument "The both of you need to grow up."

Malfoy turned his disdainful scowl to Tonks. "And why should I listen to you, dear cousin?"

"Don't talk to her like – "

"Because," Tonks cut Harry off. "_Dear_ cousin, if you aren't quiet you'll wake up that mad banshee again and then I'll stun you myself."

Malfoy seemed to consider this as a bad idea. "Fine." he said.

"Good, now come on to the kitchen an we'll wait there for the rest of the Order to get here." Tonks lead the two boys back to the kitchen and once they had sat down gave them her first ever hard stare. "You two sit and try being civil for a few minutes."

Harry gave Malfoy a false smile. "Want a cracker Ferret?" he held up the box of half opened crackers.

Malfoy retaliated with a fake smile of his own but it was less of a smile and more of a sneer with teeth showing. "Of course Pot Head, I'm honored your sharing the moldy old party favors with me. If I find a hat half as stupid as the one you've got there I'll be delighted beyond reason."

Harry threw the box at his face. "Pot Head? That's a new one..."

Malfoy caught the box and pulled out a cracker. "I've got a whole bunch of insults just waiting to offend you. Potty, St. Potter, Wonder Boy, Scare Face, Four-Eyed Freak, Gryffindork for your whole house, Potterets for those silly third years who follow you around giggling... The list goes on and on."

"I bet it dose. So that's what you do with your spare time, think up lame insults."

"No, I don't waste my spare time on you, the insults just seem to come naturally. It's like a gift." Malfoy smiled and it almost wasn't malicious.

"You ought to return it for a better one, your gift stinks."

"Oh yes, the 'Potter Stink's' badges in fourth year were really a strike of genius."

"Just like the Flight of the Amazing Bouncing Ferret?" Harry countered quickly.

"Shut up Potter." Malfoy growled in the back of his throat.

"Oh, how I could spend hours and hours replaying that moment in my head, it always brings me a big smile. Never gets old. Seeing you bounced up and down the hall in the form a Ferret is what Ron makes his patronus with."

"Shut up!"

"Nothing to say to that, Malfoy? No witty comeback? Not even a squeak?"

"I swear Potter if you don't shut up –"

"What are you two talking about?" Tonks interrupted them just before they reached to point of no return, but she genuinely sounded interested.

"Nothing!" Malfoy shouted.

"Just remembering the highlight of fourth year." Harry said loftily.

"What happened in fourth year?" Tonks asked again.

"NOTHING!!!" Malfoy shouted even louder before Harry could even open his mouth.

"Calm down Draco I just want to hear the story." Tonks said.

"Not from Potter. Not from anyone. NOT EVER! That story will NEVER be repeated do you hear me Potter if you tell her I'll come in here at night and poison your food. You'll think your Umbridge for the rest of your life."

Harry took a minute to think about that and realized Malfoy had just threatened him with a fate worse than death. "NO! The horror! Oh God, can you actually do that?"

"I can, and don't think for a second I wouldn't." Malfoy sneered.

"Malfoy, you rat. Fine, have it your way, sorry Tonks but the price is just too..." Harry unwillingly pictured himself in a padded white room imagining himself to be the short, fat, squashed faced, bug-eyed, wide mouthed toad and he felt his skill craw, the very thought of that fate made him feel violated. I can't Tonks... that would be." Harry scrunched up his face like he had just stuck his nose in dog crap. "_Vile_."

Tonks laughed. "Oh I remember Unbridge," She said. "Evil toad that tried to take over Hogwarts, right?"

"Evil toad? She was the Teaching Tool of Beelzebub!" Harry used Hermione's insult for Umbridge.

Malfoy grinned at the insult. "That woman was an abominable monster." He added at a lower volume but with now less feeling.

"What are you talking about Malfoy," Harry turned on the blond. "You joined her!"

"That doesn't mean I liked her. She was in power and Father told me to support her."

"You took orders from Satan's pet Toad."

"That doesn't mean I wanted to follow them!"

"Leader of the Inquisition Squad!"

"Don't remind me!"

"You were practically _licking he ass_."

Malfoy made a face quite similar to Harry's nose-under-dog-crap. "Potter, you're going too far there!"

Harry laughed at Malfoy's discomfort. "That was sick Malfoy, sick and low, even for you. Honestly, I could barely believe it. Out of all the horrible things you've done that takes the whole damn cake. I've lost all respect for you."

"Shut up Potter, please." Malfoy grimaced. "That was the one order I considered disobeying my father on. And believe me that memory is on par with that _F_ thing. I'm trying to forget it ever happened so can you just drop it and move on?"

"Forget that what happened? That you became Umbitch's devoted _toady_?"

"Not funny, Potter." Malfoy said, with little emotion left in his voice now that the adrenalin had worked it's way though his system and the thought's of Umbridge had sobered him.

"I thought it was." Harry was still happy to be the one badgering Malfoy for a change, but his continuous prodding seemed to bring back a flicker of his foe's normal malicious attitude.

"Well you would." Malfoy sniped.

"What's that supposed mean?"

"You know what it means. Or are you just asking for more verbal abuse?"

"If you think your weak little sniping counts as abuse... Maybe it makes first years a little nervous but I think you're over estimating yourself."

"Well I do have to admit it has its limitations, I can only offend people with a basic understanding of the English language. Obviously you aren't one of these people Potter."

"You two should both just start a comedy act or shut up." Tonks muttered and poked at her last Everyflavored bean.

"Pottered probably ruin it if we did. No room in his brain for lines, he's using everything he's got just to remember he has to breath."

"Shut your face Malfoy!"

"Dumbledore's here." Mad eye announced and then hobbled out of the kitchen.

Harry and Tonks looked at each other wondering if the other had heard the old Auror enter.

"Where did he come from?" Malfoy asked the question on Tonks and Harry's minds.

"Mr. Moody, you will find, is quite more adept at being less intrusive than his impersonator was. As am I." Dumbledore said to the gawking Tonks with a twinkle in his eye. "As you ought to know Harry."

"So you weren't really invisible then?" Harry asked, immediately reminded of how he had failed to see Dumbledore in the room while he was staring at the Mirror of Erised in his first year.

"There are more way's to be invisible than one. If you are asking whether or not I could duplicate the effects of an invisibility cloak with a spell then no, but often times the full effects of an invisibility cloak are not needed to merely fool the eye." Dumbledore looked down at his twelve-handed watch. "Ah yes, they should all be arriving shortly. Hello Mr. Malfoy."

"Professor Dumbledore." Malfoy said shortly and thus ended their conversation.

Remus, Mad-eye, and Snape joined Harry, Malfoy, Tonks and Dumbledore in the kitchen as they waited for the other members to arrive. In under ten minutes in twos and threes most of the members of the Order had either flooed though the kitchen fireplace or apparated to the ally down the street and entered though the front door. None seemed surprised to see that Malfoy was sitting at the long table next to Harry with a pile of sweats and an assortment of strange objects between them. Harry remembered most of the Orders' faces from seeing them going to meetings the past summer like Kingsly Shakbolt as well as a number of Hogwarts professors. The most surprising member of all was revealed in the arrival of Rita Skeeter. In all about twenty witches and wizards had gathered in Grimmauld place.

"Once the Weaslys arrive we shall begin the meeting." Dumbledore announced. "They are running a bit late because they had some last minute packing to do before they were able to leave. But until they appear I shall tell you briefly what we will be going over. The first order of business will be an update on Voldermort's latest intentions and plans, though I am sad to say that we have yet to discover the exact location of his base of operations. This news will be brought to us in a report by Severus and Draco who though their courageous actions have uncovered much to enlighten us about The Dark Lords reaction to his recent uncovering. We shall then move on to discuss what should be done in light of this new information and if time allows – "Dumbledore paused to take a breath and just as he did the fireplace flared green and after a very loud rumbling out shot Ginny Weasley carrying a large trunk and suitcase.

"Is this the Order Meeting?" She asked slightly bewildered and covered in soot. Harry heard a frantic shuffling and was pushed off the bench as Malfoy dove under the table.

"Correct, young Mrs. Weasley." Dumbledore said benignly. "Welcome to Grimuldian Place."

"Oh, there wasn't much floo powder left and I had to split it with Ron... very rough ride."

The fire flared and rumbled again and Ginny hopped out of the way just as Ron shot through with his own luggage as well as his parents.

"Hey Harry!" Ron called with a large grin on his face; his white teeth showing clearly against his sot covered face.

"Hello Harry Dear." Mrs. Weasley greeted him from the kitchen door with Mrs. Weasley standing behind her. "Ron, Ginny, drag the luggage upstairs and if you make one bit of fuss about sitting in on this meeting I'll flay you alive and put you in dinners soup do you hear me?" She said sternly.

"Yes mum." Ginny sulked and started hauling her luggage out of the kitchen followed by her brother who had a slightly larger load. Apparently this subject had been discussed before hand or there would have been much more fuss.

"See yah Harry, tell me all about the meeting right?" Ron turned his head and smiled, ready to shut the door.

"Course Ron." Harry smiled back and waved goodbye to his friends as they shut the door behind them.

Beside him Malfoy climbed from under the table and straitened his expensive robes and perfect hair. "Glad that's over." He said primly.

"Coward."

"Who said I had to put up with the uproar Ron would have caused if he saw me?" Malfoy asked using a much less derogatory tone than was to be expected. Harry looked over and Mr. And Mrs. Weasley who were being greeted by Dumbledore and wondered if that was his reason for keeping himself in check.

"And now the thirty fifth meeting of the Second Order of the Phoenix shall officially begin." Dumbledore announced. "Severus would you please take the floor and give us your latest report."

"Of course Dumbledore." Snape stood up and Dumbledore took his seat at the crowded long table. "The Dark Lord is planning to withdraw some of his interest in England. He knows he is by no means ready to face an all out war, even with the pledged assistance of the Giants. He is seeking a strong hold at Durmstrang and hoping to recruit mass numbers of Death Eaters from other countries by working from there. As you all know the school is concealed and Karkaroff is a Death Eater himself, therefore finding the Dark Lord is a bit of a challenge. Even his inner circle has no idea where the exact coordinates of their apparitions are, the dark mark dose not allow for that, but it is a good guess that he is hold up in Durmstrang or in a fortress nearby, Merlin know there aren't enough of them scattered around waiting for a dark lord to conceal and inhabit.

"There is also talk about some sort of weapon, but I am not involved in this and therefore I still have no clue as to what this weapon may be. I believe we still must be on our guard about this.

"Do not be mistaken, Death Eater activity will continue in England. The Dark Lord dose not want us to think we are too safe, he will still be spreading fear and distrust, his most prominent weapons at the time, to keep up appearances that he is still focusing on England.

"As for his obsession with Potter, I cannot say. He has asked me to keep a close eye on the boy, fearing that he shall have special instructions or some such training to further his magical abilities but now that the prophesy is shattered and only Dumbledore knows it's true words he has come to his own conclusions as to why it was so important that he never hear it. He is not a stupid man and may I tell you that I think he is dangerously close to the truth, his obsession with the prophesy was meanly a search for confirmation that only Potter is capable of killing him, not that he _will_ be stopped by Potter in the end, though it is what we all hope.

"As for any plans of his concerning the school I do believe Dumbledore has scared him off with their duel in the ministry, he has been reminded once more that he has a challenge in Albus Dumbledore that he is not yet ready to face.

"My advice to the order would be to keep the ministry on guard. They must understand that their efforts would be better directed in stopping the Death Eater activity in England than declaring all out war and seeking The Dark Lord out while he is concealed. The Order can search for The Dark Lord's Strong hold while the ministry protects its people."

"Very informative Severus, thank you." Finished Dumbledore. "Now if you would like to open the floor to Mr. Malfoy."

"Of course." Snape sat and Malfoy stood up and took his place standing at the head of the table.

"My understanding of Voldermort's current movements is much the same as Professor Snape's though Voldermort is also searching to recruit from Hogwarts as well, though he is doing it very subversively. I am to be the only marked Death Eater at the school though there may be others that I don't know of. My objective is to seek out members of the student body loyal to him and direct them into his service. He is looking for followers to be placed in the ministry. After the first war many of his ministry contacts are either dead or have fallen into suspicion, much like my father. He has few people of use to him in the ministry and he is searching for followers to be placed there though only after their seventh year.

"That's all I have, though I think the initiation of the potential Death Eater students at the end of the year could be an opening in his defenses. On which we could exploit and use to find the exact location of his Camp. I myself did not attend the camp being adequately trained by my father and Professor Snape but it is logical to assume that it is somewhere in extremely north, possibly even somewhere on Durmstrang's vast grounds."

"Thank you very much Mr. Malfoy, your information was most useful and it will be imperative to know which spy's Voldermort is planning on inserting into the ministry. Rita, how do you think the election will go?" Dumbledore asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"Oh, I think it will go quite in our favor." Said Rita. "Madam Sawgrass is in the running against Umbridge and after what Umbridge did to Hogwarts reaches the public I don't think there will be any problems with that woman. They're the two main candidates but there's also a dark horse to be, Mr. Greygorfin. But nobody really knows much about him and I think it shall stay that way."

"Ah Madam Sawgrass," said Dumbledore "Delightful woman. Yes I do believe she would be the best candidate to assume to position of minister but do not count out Mr. Greforfin completely Mrs. Skeeter, he is a good man and though he has no ties with the Order he would make a just minister."

"Of course Dumbledore." Finished Rita.

"Now, I would like to open discussion on what should be done about the relations between the werewolves and Voldermort. Remus, do you have any more to add on the subject of the northern tribes?"

"They are still sitting on the fence Albus, they're more keen to our cause now that Fudge is out of office, they wont believe the lie's Voldermort told the during the first war but they also don't know if they are willing to fight for a society that has shunned them at every turn. Most of the tribe have been werewolves since birth so they don't have many ties with the wizarding world, all they know is the bigotry, they don't see the other side's view of things and they are reluctant to fight. The good new is they wont be fighting against us but that doesn't account for the Western tribe and the rouges in between."

"And what about the other tribes?" Called a stout witch from be back whom Harry didn't recognize, she had a loud voice that left room for no nonsense.

"They are too far away to think the war is of any concern to them." Said Remus "They know Voldermort's promise of a cure is empty and many of them have no wish to be cured. The other tribes are older and less susceptible to change. They are a tribe of werewolves rotted in their traditions and they think of them selves as a separate species rather than humans with a condition who are striving to fit into society that dose not have accommodations for them. What we must worry about are rouge werewolves with no tribe who are newly bitten. Voldermort will ask them to create more werewolves for his army and promises them a cure after they fight for him in the war. They'll be just desperate enough to believe him and angry enough with the wizarding world to join him." Explained Remus; apparently she was new, thought Harry.

"Thank you Remus." Said Dumbledore one last time. "And now on to our last order of business. The next meeting shall be held in four days time, I believe that in light of this new information we should not seek to inform the Ministry only after a new minister has been named and Mrs. Umbridge is removed from her temporary office. We should also seek to inform the other European governments of Voldermort's activity though they will be strongly urged to use the utmost discretion as to what actions they chose to take. It is imperative to our cause that Voldermort dose not learn exactly how much of his movements we are aware of. In the mean time since Death Eater activity shall not cease in England and the ministry is too preoccupied with it's internal affairs to protect the muggleborn student's and their parents we shall be opening Hogwarts and Hogsmead to them over the summer as we did those sixteen years ago when time's of war arose. Professor Snape and Mr. Malfoy I must enforce upon you how essential information pertaining to this new weapon of Voldermort's is. Rita, I am quite sure you know what is being expected of you and I believe you will perform your duty in a most inventive and amusing fashion as always. Am I correct in expecting that your two eldest sons shall be joining the order next meeting Arthur?" Dumbledore turned to Mr. Weasley and waited for his reply.

"Of course Dumbledore, and Fred and George say they're working on some inventions to help out Snape and Malfoy. Oh! And I think Percy could be a real help, he's really seen the error of his ways after all this Fudge business."  
"Very good. I am looking forward to Fred and George's newest inventions for the war effort. The extendable ears and their amazing ability to slip under even the most effective bubble of silencing charms are truly a remarkable creation."

"Thank you Sir." Said Mr. Weasly.

"And if there is nothing else?" Dumbledore paused but no one had anything to add. "Then the meeting is adjourned and we shall reconvene at this time in four days. Let us remember that in knowing the truth we are shielded against the fear and deceit Voldermort is so skilled in spreading and that as long as we are strong and stand together against him we shall not be defeated. He is weak and crippled, exposed and forced into hiding. And yet he is by no means a man of few means. He has servants at his disposal and many tricks up his sleeve. Be on your guard against him but to not be crippled by fear of him. My fellow members of the Order we stand strong against him and he shall be defeated."

At Dumbledore's final words the order disbanded including Snape and Malfoy. Harry was left alone with Professor Dumbledore, Remus, Tonks, Mad eye and Mr. And Mrs. Weasley. Two heavy questions were weighing on Harry's mind but the chance to have one answered had slipped though his fingers, he would not wait for the second to do the same.

"Professor Dumbledore!" Harry called after the gray bearded wizard as he was preparing to say some final words to the reaming members. "May I have a word with you?" Harry asked.

"Of course, dear boy." Said Dumbledore. "Would this be a word in private?"

"Er, yes please." Said Harry.

"Then follow me into the drawing room." Dumbledore sat up and Harry followed leaving behind the gang of witches and wizards still in the kitchen.

"Um, sir, I was just wondering." Harry began once they reached the drawing room. "Will be receiving any special training, to, your know, fight Voldermort like he thinks?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"Harry, you are already ready to face him, you power is within you and it will arise once it is ready and not before. You have seen glimpses of it in the past. Your ability to produce a patronous powerful enough to repel thousands of dementors, being able to combat Voldermort in a battle of wills when your wands locked in fourth year, and most recently transforming three humans into animals using advanced transfiguration skills not even yet taught to you are just a few examples of the glimpses we have had of you immense sleeping power. Your powers will arise when they are needed and not a moment before. To attempt forcing such a thing could do serous damage to your magical abilities and should not be attempted by any method. For the time being chose your classes wisely once you receive your OWLS results and what you need will fall into place." Dumbledore smiled.

"Are you sure sir?"

"Of course. It this had not been the case you would have been trained directly after your fifth year."

"Oh."  
"Is that all that has been weighing on your mind?" he asked.

"Er, no sir."

"Then ask what other questions you may have?"

"I was just wondering sir, do you know why Malfoy decided to become a spy? Because I really cant see any reason for it. He isn't the bravest person and he really seemed to believe in all that 'Go Voldermort, mudbloods should die' stuff and I just can't see why he'd suddenly change his mind."

"That, Harry, is a question you will have to have answered by Mr. Malfoy himself, no one else can explain his motives for you."

"Oh. But do you know sir?"

"No. He has not seen fit to tell me, but I do believe Professor Snape has some idea."

"Well, he's not going to tell me." Harry mumbled but Dumbledore must have heard him because the old wizard chuckled.

"Yes, I do believe there is a bit of a strain on your relationship with Severus."

"Strained? It was already hanging on by a thread, Professor. A very thin thread."

"Yes. Then I suppose you will have to ask Mr. Malfoy yourself."

"As if he likes me anymore than Snape." Harry sighed.

"Professor Snape, Harry. And aren't you forgetting someone? Young Mr. Weasley is sure to have something to say to you."

"Oh! Right Ron's here. Thanks professor!" Harry shouted as he rushed out of the drawing room to go tell Ron all the things he had heard in the meeting.

**To Be Continued...**

**Authors Note**

That took a bit longer than expected... My beta hasn't said anything for two weeks so I'll just post this here now. Frances took out my power for three days! Oh the wonders of Electricity! The lights, the TV, the Internet, The refrigerator, the stove where food is made, and the most important thing for a Florida resident The A/C (Deserving of capital letters)! I love Electricity (Also deserves capital letters) and I'm Ben Franklins bitch forever! I just hope Ivan doesn't come to Florida and take away my power again next week. Tornados, tropical storms, and thunderstorms, not to mention the normal humidity... oh well I love Florida anyway. I'm gonna post this before my power decides to go out again.

Well, thanks too: Zoomaphonethepirate (Wow, big name), Squiddie03, Ice Princess of Slytherin, Lady Nicole Malfoy, and Sullen-girl. Thanks for reviewing! Also Damnation Salvation: thanks so much for the offer I really appreciate I may be taking you up on that. And Serpencencia: Thanks for the advice and opinions it's the only way I really know what people think about the fic I'm going back and looking at things.

Thanks to everyone who read, hope you enjoyed it, please review!


	5. About Two Girls

**Title:** On my Way to Save the World

**Author name:** NaginiSKD3  
**Category:** Action/Adventure, Romance  
**This Story** **Includes:** Dark Magic, Harry/Draco, and Hermione/Ron  
**Rating:** R for sexual situations, violence, and language  
**Spoilers:** SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP  
**Summary:** Post-OotP HPDM Draco becomes a spy for the light and can't stand his old friends though he's unable to show it. A bit of RWHG is making Harry feel isolated. Harry and Draco start spending time together. Being a man of few morals Draco attempts to corrupt Harry. Slash ensues.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and various publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Warning: This is Slash! You have been warned if you are still reading it and you don't like slash is your own damn fault. **

**Chapter Five: About Two Girls **

Harry was, by nature, a happy guy. Life with the Dursley had been tough, hell yah, but he could look on the bright side, he could ignore them and they could ignore him and he could keep his mouth shut and they could all fucking roll over and die and he could smile, the end. Nothing would come from sulking around and being depressed so Harry bottled up his pain and regret and his absolute dread of what the future held for him beyond OWLs results and he could just push all that to the back of his head and deal with his problems later because his best friend was here and the Dursleys were gone and the future was close but not so close he had to look it in the eyes.

Voldermort had semi-retreated, no training for the final battle it would just come naturally, Ron was here and everything was going to be fine because he had so much to tell his friend he was about bursting. Hell, he'd even tell Ron about the prophecy, Ron was his best mate right? Ron would help him face his problems and then when he told Hermione she would come up with a brilliant plan and everything would go smoothly for once in his life.

Yeah right, the biggest problem in his life would be the only one to go smoothly. But don't dwell on things like that. And don't get dragged down, and don't think too far ahead. Stuff was here and now. Ron was here and now. Take things as they come because if you stop to let your problems catch you they'll swarm around you like flesh eating flies and pick you to pieces until there's no light left in your life faster than a self administered dementors kiss.

Harry concentrated hard on pushing his problems into a mental trunk and then sitting on it all to keep it from reopening. He wondered if Snape would be proud that he had finally gotten a handle on occlumancy.

"Hey Ron!" he greeted just a bit too loudly.

"Harry!" shouted Ron and Ginny in tandem.

Ron was sitting in his room on the end of his bed with Ginny on Harry's.

"Ron, you'll never guess what's happened today!" Harry thought it best to think of things in an optimistic light.

"Yeah I know it's been crazy." Ron said. "

"Mum was just told us to get our stuff packed cause we're going to Grimmauld sooner than planned and then come to find out we'd flooed right into a meeting!" Ginny said.

"And then you're here!" Ron finished.

"Yeah, okay but – "

Ron interrupted Harry. "So what happened at the meeting? Why are you here so early?"

"Well if you'd both calm down a second..." Harry waited to see if they'd not interrupt him. "I had a spat with the Dursleys and basically kicked myself out before they could."

"What?"

Harry ignored the question. "Then, you know, I had to go to Gringotts and so this place is my new home. No more Dursley's." Harry said thinking he was doing an unemotional third person summary of any old normal day."

"Brilliant! That's bloody brilliant Harry! Hope you gave those bloody gits a good piece of your mind before you left!"

"Oh I did alright. I'd finally had enough of them."

"So now you're here?"

"Yup, place is mine."

"That's great Harry!" Ginny squealed.

"Yeah, I'm done with the Dursleys. Completely through. If I ever see them again it'll be much too soon."

Then it dawned on Ron. "So that's why mum wanted us to be here sooner than planned."

"Probably so, and thank God too. Tonks and I had a time of it finding anything edible here. We had to search through crackers till we found one with a load of candy in it."

Ginny giggled. "They've got crackers here?"

"Ancient ones, they've never been used. Why anyone would buy a pack beats me."

"Me too." Agreed Ron.

"So the meeting Harry?"

"Yeah you'll never guess!"

"What?"

"Malfoy was there."

"WHAT!" Both Weaslys asked in outraged disbelief.

"Draco Malfoy?" Ginny asked.

"Yep."

"What's Malfoy doing at a meeting?"

"He's a spy."

"No!"

"Yes."

"That's impossible Harry" Ginny said, "The moldy candy infected your brain."

"It didn't I'm telling you the truth but I know! I could barely believe it myself but he gave a report and everything and he just left but he'll be back in four days, that's when the next meeting is."

"Mum still thinks we're too young to join but both you _and_ Malfoy are in the Order!" Ron said. "Malfoy!" He shouted again, still not believing it.

"Well I don't see the point of you not joining if I'm just going to tell you exactly what went on as soon as the meeting's over."

"Quite right!" Said Ginny.

"Are you _sure_ **_Malfoy's_** a spy?"

"Yeah, I know, hard to believe right?"

"Fuck yeah it's hard to believe! I'd believe the story better if you said someone killed Malfoy and was using polyjuice to impersonate him at the Death Eater meetings easier than I'd believe he's actually become a spy! I'd actually like that version of things better."

"Wouldn't we all." Said Ginny in support of her brother.

"Yes, well," Harry forged on before Ron could go off into a rant. "Good news: Voldermort's out by Durmstrang recruiting so he won't be messing with Hogwarts or the ministry any time soon."

"Really? That's great!" Ginny gushed.

"Harry, I've got something to tell you too."

"Not now Ron. But there's bad news too."

"What?" asked Ginny.

"Muggle attacks don't stop. Voldermort still wants us all to think that he's in England."

"Show's him what he knows."

"Yeah."

"Harry – "

"Wait a minute Ron. And guess who else was at the meeting?"

"Who? Crabbe? Goyle? Is Voldermort a spy for himself now too?"

"No Ginny try again."

"Snape! No wait he's already a spy. Hum lets see who else is the least likely person to join the order?"

"Lockhart?" Ron ventured.

"Wrong. Rita Skeeter!"

"Skeeter! That stupid reporter, Skeeter?" Ginny asked.

"Uh-hu."

"Beetles and Ferrets what's the order coming to?" Ranted Ron. "Who next, Umbridge?"

"Oh God don't say that name!" Ginny shrieked and covered her ears.

"She's running the ministry since Fudge stepped down and now she fancy's herself minister of magic. She's planning on running but Rita's going to give her a shit load of bad press."

"That ugly toad deserves it!" Declared Ginny.

"Finally putting the beetles talents to good use."

"Yeah, 'd be good to see someone else get the sharp end of her quill for once." Agreed Harry.

"Brilliant! So Skeeter's on our side?" asked Ron.

"Yup."

"Malfoy a spy, you say?"

"Did."

"Are you sure he isn't like, a double agent?"

"Everybody seems to think it was planned or something."

"Wow, well... Harry I've got something to tell you!"

"What is it Ron?"

"Hermione and I are going out!" Ron said as if it were the latest news of Voldermort's retreat. "Were official. Like boyfriend girlfriend and everything and isn't it great!" Harry caught Ginny rolling her eyes.

"Good going. 'Bout time too Ron."

"Really Ron as if nobody saw that coming." Ginny said sounding utterly bored to death.

"No, that's not all!" shouted Ron.

"There's more?" Asked Harry.

"She and her parents are coming to Grimmauld for the summer too! It's going to be great! I mean we're going out finally but we haven't seen each other yet."

"Are you going to kiss her hello Ronniekins?" Ginny teased.

"I just might!" declared Ron.

"So when's she coming?"

"Two days!"

"Nobody told me she was coming." Harry said quietly.

"Isn't it great?" Asked Ron.

"It's great Ron."

"Yeah, I know, it's perfect!"

"Oh shut up Ron." Ginny sighted. "Seriously Harry it's all he's been talking about for days. 'Hermione and me this, Hermione and me that, can you believe it?'"

"Quiet Ginny, it's just that, well you know Harry, we've been friends since forever and I never thought of her like that but then suddenly I did and who would have thought? I mean, us? It's like the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. One of my best friends is my girlfriend! What more could a bloak ask for? This ought to show Krum not to fraternize with the enemy! Can you believe she still wrote to him? She said she's liked me for ages! Can you believe that? Ages! And all this time I think I've liked her too! Imagine."

"I can imagine Ron." Harry nodded and Ginny gave him a knowing look.

"Believe me Harry," She whispered under her breath as Ron continued babbling on about him and Hermione. "He's just getting started. Lean to tune him out and say 'that's great Ron' at random intervals and it gets easier."

"... And I first think I really recognized her in fourth year during the Yule Ball because, you know, she was just so pretty. Gosh, my girlfriend has to be the smartest _and_ prettiest girl in school! And..."

"That's great Ron." Said Ginny.

"Yeah." Said Harry with very little enthusiasm.

**

* * *

**

Draco was stomping though the streets of Batavian that night.

Usually he would stroll or saunter, sometimes briskly walk, or if he was in a particularly bad mood he'd trudge or stalk but he had never before stomped. He was stomping now; Draco was causing as much racket as possible and he couldn't figure out why he was stomping. The people of Batavian knew to stay out of his way though.

Batavian was nice little upscale wizarding settlement in Wiltshire. For the most part it was full of large homes but had a few shops and restaurants as well though it was nowhere near as big as Hogsmead. Beyond the towns limit was Hollow Wood and beyond that was the gate to Malfoy Manor. The Manor was surrounded by anti apparition charms much like the ones on Hogwarts and the nearest communal fireplace was located in a local bar named The Bat's Wing Pub. Draco would never again have to use he pub's fireplace and then take the long walk though the woods only to have to take another long walk across the grounds and then another long walk up the many flights of stairs and endless expanses of hallways to reach his room because now Draco was in possession of the signet ring which acted like a portkey directly to the front doors of the Manor. He would still have to walk to his room but there were ways around that.

Draco was glad he'd never have to get home by foot again, he hated walking though the Woods and especially at night. The Forbidden forest reminded him of the Woods a lot. Merlin save the soul of a visitor to the Malfoys who missed the gate when they apparated and found themselves somewhere in the Woods. The first thing that would happen to you was that you would be lured into the deepest parts by Demonic ducks who cut false paths though the trees and enchanted them with charms to give you hope and put you at ease. Of course they weren't really demon ducks, they had a proper and scary name, which Draco always managed to forget, but since knowing their name wouldn't save you from the false paths he didn't really care. He had seen them once with his own two eyes and demon ducks was what they looked like so demon ducks was what they were called.

After being lured deep into the Woods on the false paths the shadows would take form and bite at your flesh. The first time Draco had seen Lord Voldermort it had reminded him so much of the sorties his father had told him about the shadows of the dead that he had run screaming out of the Forbidden forest. The Shadows of the Dead were the left over shadows of those who died in the Woods and they sought to drag the shadows from the bodies of the living so that they could attach themselves and escape but being shadows they couldn't get a grip on the body and instead latched on to the soul and dragged it into the abyss. And if the Shadows didn't get your soul the Zombies would eat your brains and then the wolves would feast upon the rest of your flesh and use your bones as chew toys.

All in all the Hollow Woods was not a nice place to be if you didn't know the paths. Part of the Woods purpose was to protect the Manor from attack and the other part was to hide the Malfoy's secrets. Buried in the Woods and guarded by its inhabitants were things Draco knew he would someday have to discover. Hopefully he would not have to face his ancestor's abominations anytime soon. No, Draco didn't have to brave the Hollow Woods tonight; he was in Batavian for a reason and once he was done he had every intention of using the ring to portkey to the front gate.

Draco stopped his stomping in front of the gates of a large three story Victorian house and held his hand over the latch of the rot iron gate then muttered a few words quietly to undermine the guard charms before easily pushing it open. Once inside the gate he was careful not to stomp anymore but padded stealthily across the circular gravel drive and past gaudy bubbling fountain. Seriously, some wizards didn't know the difference between tasteful and trashy.

Draco snuck across the grass and climbed up the vine ladder. The ladder would have definetly collapsed under his weight if not for the strengthening charms he and Cecile had placed on it the summer before.

Cecile Adams was one of the pureblood inhabitants of the village that Draco was friends with. She was pretty enough, nothing stunning but better than that ghastly product of inbreeding Pansy. Cecile and he had just started getting to know each other the summer before. Draco had never bothered to meet any of the population of Batavian until; unable to stand any more time spent in the Manor wandering from room to room, he had started braving the path though the Woods and then wandering the streets of Batavian.

Of course he had been though the well off village time and again but he had never stopped to get to know anything about it. Whenever he and his parents or him and a servant left on a shopping trip for Diagon Ally, or on the way to kings cross on September the first, or passed though on a visit to a friends house he never though of it as anything other than a place between himself and his destination. Draco had never met anyone from the Village and he was never introduced to any of the children who lived there. He had always had his friends escorted to Malfoy Manor from some far off place or had been escorted to theirs where he would either boss Crabbe and Goyle around or ignore Pansy until she left him alone.

Only the most upper crust pureblood children were allowed contact with the Malfoy's son and heir. From a very young age his father had chosen Draco's friends. Lucius didn't want Draco mingling with the wrong sort and so delegated the duty of setting up play dates with other children worthy of his status to Narcissa. Not being that inventive of a woman Narcissa had simply arranged meetings and then left the children in the care of their nannies.

The first thing Draco had noticed about Batavian was that there were quite a few kid's who lived there just around his age and though most of the youngest ones went to Hogwarts the one's who would be in his year or bellow went to the other schools. Draco found this a little strange but then there were only three children in the small village that were in his year so he simply shrugged it off as an oddity.

All of the families in Batavian were pureblood though obviously not of the same caliber as the Malfoy's. Most had nowhere near a sixth of the genealogy the Malfoys possessed and a few were only third generation wizards and still had many muggle cousins.

Draco hadn't made fast friends with any of the children since they obviously knew who he was instantly, their groups were already formed and he was something else to them, something not real that was just visiting and then would leave so they never bothered to talk to him and the only recognition they gave him was a double take if they caught his white blond hair out of the corner of their eye. Draco didn't really care what they thought of him or if they spoke to him. He didn't come to the village for social interaction. But one day when a giggling group of the girls who he had seen casting glances at him during previous visits finally plucked up the courage to approach him he wouldn't have given them a second glance except for the fact that they were all very pretty and what teenaged boy in his right mind would protest to being surrounded by four pretty girls? After being invited to one of the girls houses Draco had learned that he didn't much like the girls. No matter how pretty they were looks didn't make up for being total airheads and conversations with pretty little fools didn't make angry Durmstrang hailing boyfriends worth dealing with.

All in all there were eight children he knew after the end fourth to fifth year summer. Three were in his year and five a year below. The two boys, Jeremy and William, who were in Draco's year both went to Durmstrang and the only girl, Cecile, went to Beuaxbanton Academy. Out of the younger five two girls, Jamie and Isabel, and a boy, Alex, went to Beuaxbanton and one girl and one boy went to Duramstrang.

Kristy, the girl who went to Durmstrang, was defiantly worth a good fuck. Jamie was desperately in love with him but he couldn't stand her voice, Isabel was no better and both reminded him of the giggly gossiping girls back at Hogwarts who annoyed him so. Jeremy and William both wanted to go out with Isabel and Jamie and had threaded to teach Draco a lesson but since Draco wasn't interested in there would be girlfriends they eventually backed off. Out of all of them only Cecile could hold his attention long enough to have a worthwhile conversation.

Even if Kristy was almost beautiful Cecile was still the more interesting of the two because Cecile was like forbidden fruit. She was practically a muggle having grown up with muggle cousins as friends. She went to the muggle movies and ate muggle snacks and used muggle slang and watched muggle television and wore muggle cloths and most importantly of all she listened to muggle music. This was just why his father had kept him away from the village's children, because even though they were pureblood they didn't show it much. Cecile had tons of muggle music and Draco was fascinated by it. More than Kristy's looks and more than trading Dark Magic knowledge with the boy's from Durmstrang Draco was interested in Cecile and her muggle music obsession.

That summer she and Draco had spelled the vine ladder to hold five times it's normal weight so that he could sneak in though her window whenever he wanted and tonight Draco intended to use it. He wasn't going to pour his heart out to her but he could sneak in and get some Cds.

Cecile had thought it was funny when Draco had started rifling though her collection of shiny circles, which was what Draco had called the Cds for the longest time, so she had pushed a button on a box and then shoved a few of the circles onto circle slots that were indented on a tray that popped out of the box when the button was pushed. When the tray had closed and more buttons were pushed music came from the box. Each circle had a different set of songs it made the box play and the music was ten times better than the Weird Sisters. It was so much faster and louder that Draco hadn't like the muggle music at first but he had eventually decided that the Weird Sisters sounded like total wimps when compared to some of the bands that had Cds. He now considered them to be much too slow for his new taste in music.

Cecile was always trying to explain how the things worked but Draco could never quite catch on to the theory behind the music making circles and eventually she had given up and just let him shove Cd after Cd into the box copying what he had seen her do and listen to the music for hours. Really, muggle musicians were genius.

Draco opened Cecile's window and climbed though.

"Ses." Draco whispered and the sleeping girl turned away from him. "Ses!" he called a bit louder and she made a swatting motion with her hand. "Damn it girl wake up!" He said at normal voice level right into her ear.

Cecile shot up so fast she bumped her head on Draco's chin and then proceeded to become entangled in her bed sheets and fall to the ground. Draco thought she had finally woken up but she was still half asleep. "Mum I already cleaned up the cucumbers, they're ready for spearing so stop bugging me." Her groggy voice said from the foot of the bed.

"The cucumbers are done Cecile dear you forgot to do the kiwi's." Draco said in a high-pitched voice trying to imitate her mother but failing miserably and falling pray to a fit of sniggering.

"'Foy? That you?" Cecile pulled herself up onto the bed and squinted though the darkness. "You bastard!" She exclaimed when she figured out that he had been the one to wake her. "Go home! What are you doing here?"

"Helping you spear the cucumbers?" Draco asked

"What? Never mind what do you want?"

Draco flopped onto the bed and dragged Cecile against him. "You." He said, his hot breath brushing her ears. Draco twined his fingers around a black corkscrew curl.

Cecile giggled and turned her back on him. "Go bother Kristy you horny bastard, I'm tired."

"Could I bring Kristy here? The two of you could split the work..." Draco ginned wolfishly behind Cecile's shoulder.

"We've already discussed this Draco darling and if you recall I told you that strawberry blonde little sluts aren't my type."

"What about bleached blonde's?"

"They're fine as long as they don't wake me up in the middle of the night demanding sex when I'd rather be sleeping." Cecile rolled out of Draco's embrace and fished over the side of the bed for her covers.

"You'd rather sleep that be with me? Did you hit your head when you fell out of bed? Jamie would die of happiness and have three orgasms before anything even started if I snuck into her room demanding sex."

"Then go bother Jamie, I'm not interested." Cecile heaved the blankets and sheets over the edged then curled up under her covers and kicked Draco with her feet trying to get him off her

bed.

"But Sessy!" Draco wined and threw himself on top of her. He didn't pout because that would only be wasted in the darkness. Letting out a puff of air Draco went limp and rested all his weight on her then tucked his head against her shoulder, when all she did was roll her eyes and sigh at her misfortune he really did pout. "I swear you must be a lesbian sometimes."

Cecile just stared at him and frowned. "If I were would you stop bothering me and get off?" she asked sounding annoyed.

"Fine." Draco rolled off her in a huff. "Draco Malfoy dose not have to beg for sexual favors, girls and boys a like line up to suck his cock and you a re obviously a lesbian."

Cecile began to giggle uncontrollably and tried to muffle it by burying her head in the pillows but since Draco was on top of her she was forced to cackle her amusement right into his ear. "And dose Draco Malfoy really have such an over inflated ego that he believes that rot? I mean, seriously Foy. You're defiantly hot, no denying, but that's going a bit far. And for your information I'm not a lesbian but Janice is so maybe you should forget about having her suck you cock."

"Really? Do you think she'd go for a three way with me and Kristy?"

"What is with you?" Cecile asked. "Are you really that randy?"

Draco pursed his lips. "No, not really. Can I borrow some Cds?"

Cecile paused and thought for a moment and Draco might have seen her frowning but then she smiled again. "Cds? What are those? Do you mean the shiny circles, the see these, or the music making things?"

"No," Draco rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "I mean the compact disks."

"What?" Cecile sat up in bed shoving Draco off her. "Where did you learn what Cd stood for? I told Jeremy not to tell you! That rat! I'll hex the hell out of him!" Cecile looked about ready to leave her bed and punish Jeremy as soon as possible but Draco was quick to push her back down to her pillows.

"Jeremy didn't tell me, I read it on the picture side of one. It doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe Md's for musical disks but really, they aren't that compact."

"Oh." Cecile went back to hugging a pillow and wishing for sleep even though she now owed Jeremy ten nuts and five sickles. "Maybe there not that small in terms of what you can do with magic but muggles used to use disks ten times the size off Cds called Records before the Cd was invented."

"Why – "

"Because they recorded things now please shut up and let me sleep."

"Why didn't they call them Beds?" Draco asked."

"What?" Cecile asked sounding very put upon.

"Bds for Big disks?"

"I don't know Draco and frankly I don't give a damn."

"Whatever, I don't care anymore can I just borrow some of your Cds?"

"Sure, take the little player too unless you want to haul the big one out." Cecile thought on this. "Which you aren't allowed to do so just take the little on it's on my dresser." Cecile sounded half asleep and started kicking Draco with her feet again.

"Thanks." Draco kissed her on the cheek and rolled off the bed.

"Everything alright." Cecile's sleepy voice asked from the bed a bit worried by Draco's morose mood.

"Not really." Draco admitted and grabbed a few of the disks out of the big box and shoved them into his cloak then grabbed the player from her dresser. "I'll give these back to you in a few days, ok?" He asked as he headed for the window.

Once on the ground Draco said the spell to activate his ring and anger experiencing a tight pull form behind his belly button he was instantly transported just outside the ominous gate so Malfoy Manor.

It was ok to have muggle music in the house as long as his father was dead and gone but before that he wouldn't have dared risk even letting his father know that he had access to muggle musing in the town, he could have put Cecile in real danger. Last summer he had only ever listened to Cecile's music when he was sure his father was away on a business trip and his mother was with friends and he sure as hell would have never taken the music into the Manor but now that his father was gone he could listen to music in peace.

**

* * *

**

After his conversation in Ron's room Harry, Ron, and Ginny had all headed down to dinner during which Ron ceaselessly insisted on highlighting all of Hermione's stunning qualities and just _how_ surprised he was to find out that she liked him too. And not just like, _like_ liked him. Harry was about to strangle him and Ginny was getting dizzy from all the eye rolling and meaningful glances at Harry.

"Ron." Harry had finally said. "Stop talking."

Ron had given Harry a bewildered look but shrugged it off and stuffed his face with potatoes instead.

That night Harry had slept in a pair of Ron's pajamas. For hours Harry had laid in darkness trying to think of a way to tell Ron about the prophecy but nothing seemed to fit right. But he had to tell Ron sooner or later and now that he was actually there the excuse of 'it's too big a thing to put in a letter.' And 'I'm too much in shock to even accept it myself.' Were no longer holding up. He couldn't just come out and say it, he couldn't just pull Ron aside and say 'look, I have to kill Voldermort or he has to kill me because nothing else can kill us but the other. That said if I don't kill Voldermort he becomes invincible as well as immortal and the entire worlds fucked.' How could you just say something like that? And besides, Ron didn't even want to listen, all he could think about was when Hermione was coming and how he would greet her and how bloody great it would all be. Harry had shared more meaningful glances with Ginny than he had in five years worth of knowing her. Maybe he should wait until Hermione came to tell them both at once.

The next morning Harry had joined Ron at the breakfast table upon which Mrs. Weasley had laid out a most delicious spread of food. Harry had been so hungry at dinner last night that he had completely ignored the magical appearance of food and simply tucked in but now that he was thinking with less of a hungry wolf mentality he had to wonder...

"Mrs. Weasley" Harry started to ask as he sat down.

"Yes Harry?" she replied.

"Er, where dose all the food come from? Did you shop at a supermarket?"

"Super market? Oh no dear, I just owled the regular old market and had them ship over the food." Said Mrs. Weasley. "Super market, their prices must be though the roof and I'm sure none of the foods really worth it."

"There's a wizards food market?" Harry asked astonished as he learned this one bit more about the wizarding world.

"Of course there is. Now usually I just use the vegetables from the garden back at home and only buy the meat and dirks but there just isn't room for a vegetable garden in this place. Anyway, while where here Dumbledore leaves some funds to keep us well fed and I just use them wisely and don't fall for any of those cheap gimmicks like a super market. I'll have to pay him back for the families expenses of course but that'll just have to wait until there's a bit more money to spare."

"Uh, what's at the food market? Where is it?"

"Oh! Dear I'm so sorry sometimes I just forget you don't know these things. Who could blame a woman for being a bit scatterbrained after raising seven children?" Mrs. Weasley laughed and piled eggs onto Harry's plate. "It's located down in Devon. It's probably just liked any old muggle market. They sell fruits and vegetables and snakes, Meat and deserts, basic cooking ingredients like flour and vegetable oil and sugar of course, and then there's the already pre-made meals which you can heat up with a spell, but their expensive and aren't really worth it unless you've got something fancy coming up and you haven't had time to cook. Now I like to cook everything myself, just seems proper for a hostess to do. More sausage?"

"Not thanks." Said Harry

"I'll take some mum!" Ron had shouted.

The next day Mrs. Weasley had gone out with Harry's vault key and gotten him a few pairs of jeans that actually fit, some t-shirts, boxers and undershirts – the last bunch to wear to bed. Harry was immensely grateful.

That had been yesterday morning and today was the day Hermione arrived.

"I can't believe it! She's going to be here in an hour! Do I look ok?"

"You look fine Ron." Harry said without even thinking. Honestly, in just two days it had become almost second nature to tune Ron out.

"Thanks Mate. I can't trust Ginny, she wouldn't even look, and I don't think she was listening to me. Is my hair really ok? You don't think Hermione 'll think it's sloppy?"

Harry looked at Ron's hair, which was looking a lot like his own mop minus half the volume. Harry wasn't sure how his own hair looked because he really didn't care but Mrs. Weasly had been pushing him to get a haircut. Harry told her not to bother it just grew back anyway but he didn't think she was giving up so easily and was just waiting for it to come up again in conversation.

Harry thought Ron's hair looked, well Ron's hair looked cool. It looked really cool and Harry wished his hair could look half as deliberately styled with such little effort but alas, his was the fate of those with absolutely obnoxious hair that offended respectable parents no matter how nice you really were on the inside, Harry was lucky he was a celebrity and so people paid absolutely no attention to his hair or his face or anything other than his scar, which they couldn't see because it was covered in volumes of hair and that's how Harry liked it, right where no one could see it.

"Ron your hair's looks cool now stop acting like a girl."

"I'm not acting like a girl I just wanted to know, I mean, what if Hermione doesn't like it?"

"Ron, Hermione likes you for who you are and she's not shallow, your hair doesn't matter to her." Harry was completely aware that if Hermione thought Ron's hair looked stupid she would insist he fix it so it really didn't matter either way because eventually Ron's hair would end up how Hermione liked it.

"How's my breath?" Ron asked suddenly and breathed a whole lot of hot air into Harry's face fogging up his glasses.

"OH, GOD RON!" Harry shouted pushing his friend back out of his personal space. "What the hell was that for?"

"My breath's horrible isn't it?" Ron asked making the whiney whimpering sounds he did when he got really afraid.

"No. Eugh! Ron your breaths fine but that was just really gorse!"

"I'm sorry Harry I just – "Ron was cut off by the doorbell ringing and he froze. "That's her." He said, frozen to his spot in the entrance hall.

"Well, go open it." Harry prompted his friend. "You had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch didn't you?" Harry scrunched up his face in mild disgust.

"You can tell!?" Ron asked, panicking.

Harry was wiping his glasses off on the tails of his new black T-shirt. "Only because you just got up in my face and fogged up my glasses. God that was uncalled for."

"Oh, okay." The doorbell rang again.

"Well, tha'd be Hermione and her parents so you'd best go get it before they get impatient."

"Wait! What if her parents don't like my hair? What if they think I'm some sort of hooligan?"

"Hooligan?" Harry brushed his hair out of his eyes and put his glasses back on. "You've already met Hermione's parents and they liked you well enough but they're going to think your plain rude if you don't open the door soon." The doorbell rang again. "See."

"I can't do it Harry. You open to door for me!" Ron pushed Harry forward and stood behind him.

"Who put you in Gryffindor? You answer the door."

"Please Harry I can't it's – there's no time to cut my hair!"

Harry shook his head at his panicking friend and calmly opened to door for the Grangers and Hermione.

"Hello." Harry said brightly and smiled. "Hey Hermione."

"Hello Harry." Said Mr. Granger who had shortly cut mouse brown hair.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted and Harry had to give her a look reminding her of Mrs. Black. "Oh." She said in a quiet whisper and winced. "Sorry."

"Come on in." Harry ushered the three people inside like a doorman and then shut the door behind them.

"It's so great that we all get to spend the summer together." Hermione said in a very excited whisper. "But where's Ron?" She asked.

"Yes," Said Mrs. Granger whose face looked much like Hermione's but whose hair was a darker shade of brown and had light waves instead of frizz. "Where is Ron?"

"Mum." Hermione begged blushing.

"Oh don't be embarrassed dear we just want to say hello to your friend."

"Don't be silly darling, you know Ron's her _boy_friend" Hermione's dad said jovially.

"Dad!" Hermione said in a loud exasperated whisper.

"Oh, well he was right behind me when we ran for the door." Lied Harry to cover up for how long it took for someone to get the door. "Guess he got left behind. I'm sure he'll turn up very soon, probably right around the corner." Harry said with no shortage of meaning full innuendo in a rather loud whisper to alert Ron of their approach then marched off down the hall leading the Grangers around the corner where Ron was standing against the wall looking as if a _Petrificus_ curse was only half way worn off him.

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed as she bound past Harry and brought Ron into a hug after which she pecked him soundly on the lips. "I love your hair!"

"Hey Hermione." said Ron hesitantly, more than a bit shocked by it all.

To Be Continued... 

**

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**

**Author's Notes**

Well, that came along a bit smother than last chapter's update. If you liked this try out the One-shot Post-Hogwarts H/D I've got up. (Shameless self plug...)

About the original characters: Don't get squeamish and think this is going too off into space and that I'll forget about the cannon characters they're just footnotes and they only get mentioned here and in one other chapter, though not half as much, But they do have a purpose I swear! Sorry if anyone liked them or anything.

Next chapter: Guess what, OWLs results arrive! (Bet Hermione will be excited) also Bill, Charlie, the Twins (I'm so looking forward to writing them), and the new DADA teacher (Dun dun DUUN!) drop in for the Order Meeting. But first Draco must attend the Death Eater meeting!

Other stuff: If anyone's wondering they'll be off the Hogwarts by about chapter 8. Fixed some things in chapter two, not like you're gonna re-read it or anything... Are you still reading this? If you read this chapter on my website ) that was a pretty rough draft... hope this is better. If anyone's seen my beta please send her my way I think grrr's dropped off the face of the earth or something...

**Thanks to the people who reviewed!!!!!** Hope you liked the story please review if you did or if you have any suggestions.


	6. Results

**Chapter Six: Results**

Today was the day! Hermione woke up and was so excited envisioning her OWLs results in her hand that the first thing she shouted at the top of her lungs was: "Oh! Look everyone, OWL results arrived!" She couldn't believe she had said that out loud.

Hermione's shout was so loud it was heard from Ron and Harry's across the hall. Really she should contain herself but who would blame her for her excitement. It was only the most important day in their entire _lives_. These results would determine _everything_. Enough O's and she could probably take any Pre Newts Advanced class she liked leading on to actual Newt's classes and then to the Newts and then to apprentice ship offers and eventually a good job and, oh God, her absolute entire life depended on those results! Hermione bounded out of bed intent on waking Ron and Harry so that they could share her excitement. Ron was first and as she stood in her boyfriend's doorway she saw that he was already up. _Excellent_.

"Hermione what was that noise..." Asked Ron sounding very sleepy. "Was that you?"

Hermione blushed, "I, well I was just saying OWL's results arrived."

"That's nice." Ron put his head under the pillow_. Hm, maybe not so excellent_.

"RON! Wake up." Hermione rushed over to Ron's bed and threw the covers away from him; he hugged his pillow and curled his feet under himself in response. Hermione jumped on the bed and pulled his pillow away. "RONALD WEASLEY! WAKE. UP. THIS. INSTANT!" Hermione bounce on her boyfriend's bed with each word and shook his shoulders frantically.

"Fine! I'm up, _I'm up_." Yawning wide and rubbing his eyes Ron slowly sat up, satisfied she sprung off his bed and onto Harry's prepared to do the same thing to him if he didn't wake up.

"Harry! Did you hear me? OWL's results arrive this morning!"

Harry made a strange gurgling nose and burrowed under his covers.

"Wake up!" Hermione grabbed Harry around the waist and hauled him off the bed. Poor Harry was groping around the floor for something and knowing instantly what he wanted Hermione snatched his glasses off the nightstand and threw them down to Harry then ran out of the room and down the stairs hoping both boys had done the sensible thing and followed after her.

"Mrs. Weasley, are my results here?" She called from the hall before she had even reached the kitchen.

"Yes dear, right at your seat." Mrs. Weasly said absentmindedly as she prepared an absolute feast.

Hermione careened into the kitchen and almost ran strait into the food-laden table. "Now we'll wait for Ron and Harry and then you can all tell me how many O's you got and then we'll have your celebration breakfast."

Hermione scanned the piles of food and like a missile targeting system her eyes instantly locked onto the manila envelope sealed with the purple ministry crest. "It's here." She said reverently, barely above a whisper. Hermione approached the table slowly, her hand held out eager to grasp the envelope that held information her entire life hinged on.

"Morning mum."

"Morning Mrs. Weasly."

Harry and Ron entered the kitchen, eyes half lidded and one foot still in dreamland.

"Whoa!" Ron was the first to notice all the food. Sausage, piles of Bacon, Four types of eggs, a variety of warm muffins, glasses of milk and juice, omelets, pancakes, gourmet coffee, waffles, Danishes, cinnamon roles, fruit, hash browns, and biscuits were spread out on the table and Mrs. Weasley was still cooking more.

"Wow Mrs. Weasley, is all this for us?" Harry asked disbelievingly, seriously, sometimes Harry could be so adorable.

"Only if you get at least three O's each." Mrs. Weasley smiled a very motherly smile at the two boys. A smile that said if they displeased her this was the last food they'd be seeing for a long while. "But I'm sure you did wonderfully in all your subjects, just like Hermione." Mrs. Weasley turned the motherly smile to Hermione.

"Well, I haven't seen what I got yet." Hermione looked down at the envelope resting just inches away from her grasp. "Maybe I should wait for my parents..."

"Come on Hermione, let's see what records you broke this year." Harry said smiling at her with a sleepy sort of look still in his eyes. Harry pulled out his chair and plopped down taking up his envelope and tearing it open. How could he be so calm about this? How could he just sit down and open his results like that? This was the most important time of their **_lives_** and Hermione was absolutely petrified to see her scores.

"Uh – I, well you see, I really should wait for my parents and, um."

"Pumpkin!" Hermione's father called to her from to entrance followed shortly by her mother.

Hermione was swept up into a big bear hug by her father and kissed on the cheek by her mother.

"Darling, tell us how you did, I know these results are very important. It's just like regular school, your grades will affect everything and your father and I are just dieing to congratulate you."

"Mother, Father, Thank you but um – could I, possibly – How did you even know? "

"Well we heard all that racket you were making this morning and obviously it was – "

"Hey!" Harry's excited outburst broke into Mrs. Granger's sentence. "I did loads better than I thought I would."

Ron immediate looked over Harry's shoulder reading his grades. "Good going mate! Fuck Harry, you got an O in potions!"

"Ronald Weasley! You most certainly are not allowed to use such language! Oh, congratulations Harry!" Mrs. Weasly said to him, doing a complete one eighty and then enveloped Harry in a crushing hug.

"What?" Harry struggled under Mrs. Weasley's affections and brought the sheet closer to his bespectacled face and scrutinized the parchment. "That's not right, did they mix up my scores?"

"No, that's your name up there, see." Ron pointed to something on the form and Harry seemed to agree that yes, it was his name.

"Hm, I guess I did get an O then." Harry smiled boyishly. "It says I got an E on the Essay section, because I didn't exactly finish all the questions and then I got a Perfect O on the practical. I guess I'm pretty good at potions when Snape's not there leaning over my shoulder like a hawk."

"Yeah, either that or it's a really bad joke." Ron laughed.

"And what did you get on your potions OWL Ron?" Mrs. Weasly asked her youngest son with a sweet smile on her warm face.

"I'll just go and see then shall I. If Harry got an O I must be getting one to. Wow, if Harry got a Perfect O they must have extended the grading scale to show just how well Hermione did." Ron sauntered around the table and passed Hermione. "Congratulations 'Mione." He said and pecked her on the cheek as he passed.

"But Ron, I haven't, and I don't think –" But Ron wasn't listening to her so she gave up.

Ron paused before opening his own envelope. He must be nervous like Hermione, she wasn't the only one freaking out, and it's only natural. Hermione chanced a quick glance at her yet to be opened envelope and paled. Only natural.

Ron shrugged and ripped open his seal pulling out the folds of paper forms. Slowly he skim through the other scores to find the potions results. "Damn." Ron said disappointedly. "I only got a P"

"What score is that?" whispered in her daughter's ear.

"A is Acceptable. Then there's E, exceeds expectations, and then there's O, outstanding, and above that is Perfect O for getting no points taken off, but below all that is P for poor and then D for dreadful. Anything P and over is passing but you need at least an O or sometimes an E to get into NEWTS classes."

Through all this time Mrs. Weasley was simmering and when she finally boiled over it was not going to be good for her youngest son. "**Ron**!" Bellowed Mrs. Weasley as soon as Hermione had finished her hurried explanations. "I can't believe you! How in the world could you barely pass that exam?" Mrs. Weasly looked at her son incredulously.

"Ron," Harry asked hesitantly. "The essay portion was on Polyjuice, how much easier can you get?"

"I didn't get the essay on Polyjuice I got the other one on the Draught of Peace but I forgot to study that potion because it was from the beginning of the year." Ron explained in a hurry quickly glancing at Hermione apologetically. She had specifically told him that that potion could be on the exams. "At least it wasn't a D, it's still passing."

"Ronald!" Mrs. Weasly shouted at him.

"Mum I did fine on everything else! Listen" Ron read down the results page. "Charms A, astronomy A but that doesn't really count because the exam got cut short! Divination O, hey look at that! Care of Magical creatures Perfect O, see mum it's getting better uh... Defense against the dark arts O, Transfiguration A, Herbology E, and history of Magic... uh well that class doesn't matter much dose it? Ha HA!" Ron laughed and folded up the peaces of parchment. "See that, three Os. Pretty good I'd say."

"Three O's is wonderful Ron but you're taking nine subjects and you received a P in a core class as well as a P, I presume, in History of magic because it better not be a D! Not to mention that you missed NEWTS requirements for three core classes and that is a shock. You are a prefect! I expected more of you and Divination doesn't count when searching for a job!" Mrs. Weasly began shaking her kitchen spoon at Ron threateningly. "How are you supposed to get a good job with only taking _TWO _core Newts exams?"

Ron gave an exasperated sigh. "I don't know! I guess I'll just join Charley in Romania and heal dragons with herbs, then I can tell them their future by star charts while fending off the vampires that's what! Honestly Mum I got three O's and more OWLS than the twins and even their doing fine. Merlin they didn't even finish school! They didn't take any NEWTS and they own their own shop in Diagon Alley. I really don't need another two years of Snape's hatred to get along in life."

"Fred and George are different – very different. I expected more from you Ronald, seeing you as a prefect last year and everything."

"Mum I'm not Charley or Bill or _Percy_!" Mrs. Weasly flinched at the mention of her third son and Hermione wondered what had happened to him. "Maybe Ginny can get perfect OWLs for you next year and I'm sure I'll do fine with taking four Newts courses. Harry what were the rest of your scores? Potions must be a total fluke."

"Uh," Harry began. "Fine Ron."

"Don't you try to change the subject Ron! You'll be hearing more on this later young man! Just you wait until your father hears of this!" Mrs. Weasley turned to Harry her entire demeanor had changed. "Sorry for interrupting you, Go on Harry do tell us what you got dear."

"Oh, no problem Mrs. Weasly..." Harry ran down the same list as Ron. "Potions O, Charms E, Transfigurations E, Defense Against the Dark Arts Perfect O" Mrs. Weasly was visibly calming with each passed OWL Harry announced. "Astronomy... oh my God." Harry's face dropped.

"What is it dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"D. And this says I have to take a mandatory repeat of fifth year astronomy to make up for failing!"

"Oh Harry that's horrible!" Hermione was shocked. "How in the world did you fail astronomy?"

Harry shrugged. "I didn't really take the exam. I was so distracted by everything and then on the Practical we all got interrupted, remember."

Ron gave his mother a pointed look making it clear that he had passed all of his exams, even if it had been barely. "Don't give me that look young man some subjects weigh more than others."

"Go on Harry what else did you get."

"Oh, well, Divination O, Herbology O, Wow I'm really doing great." Harry said to himself.

"Shut up, mate." Ron growled under his breath.

"History of Magic A and Care of Magical Creatures Perfect O. Six Os." Harry beamed and Mrs. Weasley again wrapped him up in a huge hug.

"That's great Harry!" Hermione was ecstatic; Harry had done better than she could have hoped. She had always known Harry was a powerful wizard, he just didn't have enough focus is the proper areas and she absolutely knew he could be brilliant if he wanted to he just needed to apply himself more, Ron needed to apply himself more too.

"Absolutely wonderful Harry! I always knew you would do fantastically." Mrs. Weasley declared in a much better mood. "And Ron, as long as you get Perfect O's on the Newts for Care of Magical creatures, Divination, Herbology, and Defense Against the Dark Arts I'll be fine with the fact that your only taking four Newts classes. That way you can devote you attentions to specific studies."

"Course Mum." Ron agreed, happy his mother was now placated.

"Hermione, we still haven't heard your scores." Hermione's father said.

"Yeah Hermione, read off the Os." Ron demanded looking to keep his mother from a relapse of her rage at him.

"But I'm not sure I – "

" – Do you think you did badly dear?" interrupted her.

"No, I'm just not sure – "

" – Well then there's no problem, show us your grades Pumpkin." Said Hermione's father.

"Oh alright!" Hermione grabbed her envelope and tore though it violently then whipped it about until it unfolded. She began reading the grades out rapidly. "Potions O, Charms Perfect O and a special recommendation to skip Pre Newts Charms and enter strait into Newts Charms, Astronomy Perfect O with the same recommendation, Aritmancy Perfect O, Care of Magical Creatures Perfect O, Defense against the Dark Arts Perfect O, Transfigurations Perfect O with a note for special recommendation as well, Herbology the same, History of Magic Perfect O, Ancient Runes Perfect O, and Caligromancy Perfect O." Hermione breathed a large sigh of relief. "Four special placement recommendations, ten Perfect Os, and one O. And there's also a note attached to the entire thing saying that I am the first student in the history of Hogwarts to receive as many Perfect Os." Hermione was dumbstruck. She had never dreamed of doing so well on the OWLS and in truth she had been very worried about her Potions grade since she had felt her practical exam had not turned out as good as it could have.

"Hermione that's absolutely wonderful!" her mother's elated voice broke Hermione from her trance and she finally released the tension that had been building up since the beginning of fifth year. Of course she would have to decide which Newts she would be taking next year and which Pre Newts classes she would select but maybe she'd rest for a week before starting on that.

"That's absolutely brilliant Hermione!" Harry and Ron chimed at the same time

"Darling you deserve a present!" her father said decidedly. "Name it, anything within reason of course."

"What's within reason Dad?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, just try not to go over the price of a nice sporty car eh?" Her father winked at her.

"A CAR! Oh a car!" Hermione was thrilled but, "But dad, what in the world would I do with a car? I'll be able to apparate by next year."

"We know honey, but we also always knew we'd be buying you a car and sending you to Oxford. And even though things have changed you've always made us proud, in whatever you do, you're brilliant Pumpkin and your mother and I love you." Hermione's father hugged her tightly. We've been saving up for a bit to get you a car but then we realized it would be sort of pointless so just name what you'd want instead."

"But what about the money for college? I'm not going to muggle college, unless you still want me to..."

"Of course we wouldn't push you Honey, we only want you to be happy and do your absolute best and it's quite clear you've got both those things covered in the Wizarding world. Besides, we solved that a while back as well." smiled sowing gleaming white teeth all in a perfect line. "It was quite clear you'd be getting scholarships so we decided to use the money we had saved for your collage another way. We put it in a trust fund a while back so that you'd have something to help you out once you go out get a place of your own. It's our present to you for being such a wonderful daughter."

"Mum, Dad, I don't know what to say... I Love you! Thank you for everything!" Hermione was on the verge of tears she was so happy.

Hermione's parents just smiled at their perfect daughter.

"Wait there's more here, forms to fill out and notes." Hermione closely examined all the papers. "Oh no! There's no almost no time at all to choose classes! We need them in by the thirteenth of August!"

Harry started. "Why in the world would August mean we have no time for choosing classes? That's moths away Hermione."

"Because! This is an important decision it affects your entire life if you don't chose the right classes how in the world are you going to get the right amount of NEWTS? How are you going to get apprenticeships? How are you going to learn what's required for the job you want? If you don't have any of that then you wont be able to do _anything_. You can't do anything without a proper job and let me tell you I will not be some bum on the streets because I chose the wrong NEWTS courses to take!" Hermione had worked herself frantic and all anyone could do was stare at her.

"Wow Hermione, you really need to calm down."

"Do not tell me to calm down Harold James Potter!"

"Harold?" Harry asked.

"You heard me! This is a **serous** matter and if you're going to goof off I insist you give me your scheduling forms this instant." Hermione held her hand out across the table and demanded Harry surrender the forms.

"What?"

"You obviously have no idea what to take Harry I can help you. You too Ron."

"But Hermione..."

"Give me your scheduling sheet Harry." Hermione held out her hand and had no intention of backing down. Mrs. Weasley and her parents decided she could deal with this on her own and so sat down for a nice breakfast feast while Hermione put Harry and Ron's futures in order.

"Fine," Harry gave her the sheets knowing it was inevitable. "but don't give me anything too hard and I don't want any potions."

"You need potions." Hermione searched around for a quill and when one couldn't be found she asked Mrs. Weasley to transfigured a piece of bacon into one. The first thing Hermione marked down was Pre NEWTs Advanced Potions. "There." She said.

"I'm X-ing that out."

"No you aren't."

"See that down there," Harry pointed to the bottom of the form. "That says I have to agree to this schedule and prove that these are my choices. I'm not signing that until I like what you've chosen for me and I don't like potions."

"You will too sign it! Potions is a very useful class and you'll need the NEWTs level to become an Auror."

"I can buy pre made potions at the apothecary."

"Those cheap things are half the potency of a third year's first try."

"Now your quoting Snape?"

"It's true!"

"Next class."

"Well I think we should all take healing magic and Conjuring."

"But Hermione Conjuring is like, ten time harder than transfiguration!"

"That reminds me, you'll also be taking Pre NEWTs Adv. Transfiguration. And lets see what else. PNA Charms will do you some good as well."

"Hermione that's way too much work! Put down PNA DADA and PNA CoMCs too if you must."

"I will." And she did. "Now lets see what's left... Well Mandatory Repeat Astronomy and that leaves you two slots. You should take apparition education and PNA Herbology."

"No put down PNA Divination so I can have another class with Ron."

"But Harry you really should take Herbology! You'll need it. I'm marking it down."

"No put down Divination I don't even like Herbology. I only got an O because I had to study so much. There was nothing else to do since I couldn't play Quidditch so I studied and my grades went up a bit. I don't actually like to do all that stuff like you do so put me down for Divination because I need at least one easy class out of five Pre NEWTs classes and Conjuring and we don't have history of Magic to sleep in anymore."

"Oh fine Harry but you're going to regret this." Hermione marked down Pre NEWTs Divination and Harry signed the schedule request with the bacon quill.

"Come on Ron your next."

Ron clutched his sheets of schedule papers and looked at Hermione with fear in his eyes. After what she had done to Harry he wasn't to sure what she was going to do with him. "What about you?"

"I have to take time to deliberate on which NEWTs classes I'll take this year because after those are Masters courses which are said to be absolutely mind boggling. I think I'll take Charms, or maybe Transfigurations but I can't decide which I want more. Oh I guess I'll just take them both at NEWTs level. Everything else will just have to stay Pre NEWTs though I think I'll forgo History of Magic and I'll have to give up Herbology and Astronomy as well oh Damn! I absolutely must keep Aritmancy Caligromancy and Ancient Runes so I'll have to skip having a break on Friday and possibly a lunch or two as well but it will all be very much worth it."

"Hermione is this going to be a repeat of third year?"

"Of course not Ron."

Nobody believed her.

* * *

It was near night by the time Draco took the OWLs results up to his room. He had been avoiding looking at them all day but now he really needed a distraction so he finally looked. He smiled, smirked, laughed, smiled some more, became aghast, became enraged, crumpled up the paper and threw it in a corner. _Fuck_. 

Draco shoved some pillows and the comforter off of his bed and threw himself down on it in a very un-Malfoy manner.

His grades were good that one little thing didn't make a difference, he was getting an award. He could still bet granger, that one thing didn't ruing everything. Why the hell did he still care about his grades when his father wasn't here to push him to bet Granger? Draco did not need to bet Granger at anything and truly who cared if he did? Only Granger, only him, and only his dead father who was still haunting him at every turn with some memory or ingrained impulse that's who.

Draco pushed all thoughts of grades from his mind and decided, with a frown, that he would think of other things. Things not concerning grades or the future events of tonight. Draco looked down at the white mask in his hands and his frown grew deeper. The death eaters were cowards, using mask to cover their faces. Draco was no Gryffindor hero but he was a Malfoy and he had a great deal of pride in himself and if he chose to do anything he would take pride in it.

Draco held the mask up to the light and wondered if Snape's was modified to fit his large nose or if Lestrange's was shaped differently to fit his ugly protruding jaw. Draco's father's face had always looked horrible under the mask. He hated seeing his father in full Death Eater garb it was so creepy and impersonal. Like hollow, soulless soldiers running around executing people. Draco thought he might look that way too.

His father, when he was alive, had had quite a hansom face, or so everyone had said. He had always resembled his father but it had never been such a resemblance that people thought he would turn out exactly like him. Draco's face was much too pretty to be considered ruggedly handsome, his sharp features and flawless porcelain skin prevented that. In the past he had truly wished to look like his father but his jaw was a bit to narrow and his high cheekbones resembled his mother's more than his father's. Draco had been convinced that at the rate things were going he would never look like his father. This had been disappointing at the time but Draco was actually quite glad of it now. He still looked like a Malfoy, how could he not, but he wasn't his father and he didn't want to be.

The Malfoy coloring was a hallmark of their name and wives were chosen carefully based on genetics rather than personality and love. Looks were just as important as pedigree. Nobody wanted an over bite or frizzy hair thrown into the gene pool.

The only thing in Draco's physical appearance that was his own were the lean muscles he had earned from quidditch that clung tightly to his thin frame. Even his thinness wasn't his own. His father had once told him: "A Malfoy is never fat." and it was true. Out of all the hundreds of family portraits that lined the walls of the Manor Family Gallery not one of them hosted overweight, portly, or even slightly plump occupants. No, all Malfoys were thin, tall, beautiful, had gray eyes, pale blond hair, milky white skin, and refined upper-class noses.

Tanning of a Malfoy was expressly forbidden, tanning had too many plebian undertones, only workers in the fields of lords tanned in the sun as their lords stayed in the castles. No Malfoy in all the families extensive history – which reached back before the founders of Hogwarts and beyond the founding of Rome – had ever strayed far from these set traits. True to form Draco was specifically all of these things with very few exceptions.

Draco was short though it was by Malfoy standards. This was fine while he was at Hogwarts because he was the perfect build for a seeker but he would not be a seeker forever and someday he would have to take on the roll of his father in politics. Malfoy's are politicians not professional athletes and though he is considered too young to be taken seriously in politics, for the time being, some day he would enter into that arena and Draco could hear his father chastising him for his high and giving him a potion to make him grow so that he would be better suited for a roll that required public speaking where he had to look stately and charismatic at all costs. Draco had no idea what he was going to do with himself now that his father was dead and he might actually be able to pursue a professional Quidditch career. He would probably just go into politics.

The thing was, he wasn't actually short and he wasn't some midget, he was shorter than his father had been and he was even shorter than his mother, who was a slender and elegant five ten, but it wasn't like he was abnormally small for his age. But the problem was that while not noticeably short on his own, when coupled with his lithe form and set between his tall parents or his bulky friends he had no hope of being considered as compared to other people who were shorter than he was.

Potter was shorter than he was but the fact that Potter was only a few centimeters short of Draco nullified the slew of insults he was ready to throw at the boy. There was no way Draco would bring up the problems of Potters height if there was a chance of any comment about his own being flung back at him. Damn his great great grandmother Alluvia's Veela blood for not granting him the tall willowy stature of her race.

Like most pureblood families that only coupled with other pure bloods there was always the chance of incest and wearing out the gene pool, which resulted in some very nasty attributes like Pansy's pug nose. The Malfoys avoided this problem like the plague. Not only did it have the potential to produce mutated children and mental deficiencies it muddied up the innate magic and increased the frequency of squibs appearing in families that weren't careful, the Malfoys would never tolerate Squibs in their line. So instead of breeding in muggles which could screw up magic just as easily as marrying ones sister the Malfoys had opted to bring in Veela blood. This was the obvious solution since none of the Veela traits interfered with those of the Malfoys and could only serve to enhance the beauty of the line. Too bad the only noticeable thing that Draco had not inherited from his great grandmother had been her height. He also wouldn't have minded getting her ability to spit fireballs. Oh! The fun he could have had with that.

Draco was lying in the middle of his black silk sheets, which were atop his king sized four-poster bed raised on a dais in the middle of the room and surrounded by numerous black throw pillows. He was in his own room since tradition or not it would be too weird sleeping in the Master suite with his mother still there because he would never kick her out of her own room.

Still, his own suit was the second largest in the Manor. Draco Malfoy did not have a single bedroom he had an apartment. Inside the main door was a sitting room with black leather couches and chairs, but not a footstool. It had run away last summer when in a fit of rage he had kicked it into the wall, after it had recovered the abused footstool had fled the manor much to his chagrin. Below the chairs was a beautiful black and silver rug whose pictures moved if you stared at them long enough. The seats were positioned around a cavernous black marble fireplace with ornate molding, above that was where he kept pictures of his friends at school and a few knickknacks. Being a Malfoy all the knickknacks were obviously priceless treasures. There were four doors not including the double doors leading into the room. The door to the far left was his study, which used to be his playroom. Now it housed his polished mahogany desk and bookshelves as well as a grandfather clock whose face had an actual nose mouth and eyes, which would talk to him from time to time about the personality quirks of former inhabitants, due to this clock he now knew that his father once possessed black fuzzy house slippers with bobbles at the end when he was Draco's age. Also in his apartments located past the middle right and the middle left doors were a humongous bathroom and a closet the size of his dorm room at Hogwarts respectively. To the far left was his spacious bedroom, and in the middle raised up on a small platform was his humongous bed, dressed in black and white like the rest of his rooms with a black runner black silk sheets unbelievably soft white comforter and at least twenty black and white throw pillows of varying sizes and sheen. Whoever had expected Slytherin colors when they entered Draco's rooms would be sorely disappointed.

Draco was currently lying in a starfish position. Spread out across his sheets in high-necked black billowing robes with too many black buttons with only black bed coverings beneath him and black pillows around him. The white comforter was thrown into a heap at the right of the bed and all the white pillows had been sorted through and thrown into the same heap. His hands were tucked into his sleeves and he kept his feet inside the black dragon hide boots so no white skin other than his face was showing. The only other white on the bed was Draco's hair that fanned out around him like a halo of light behind his head. The shock of his face and hair against the black bed sheets made it seem as if he had no body. His light blond hair had grown a bit past his shoulders and he hated it that length because even if he wasn't an exact replica of his father but having it like that made him look a bit too much like Lucius for his tastes. Maybe he would have it cut soon as some sort of memorial to his father's death.

Draco's gray stormy eyes were slowly opened and stared at the silver-gray and silver-white painted Chinese dragons that twisted and flew across the ceiling above him.

"If I'm left waiting any longer I'm going to develop worry lines on my forehead." Draco called to no one. This was a completely unfounded claim because all Malfoys knew to keep their emotions behind a mask of passive superiority, and the mask was second nature to Draco by now. He probably couldn't develop worry lines if he tried.

"Worry lines, Ha! Is it shallow to let your mind wonder to your looks just before entering the presence of the Dark Lord?" He asked the silver-gray dragon but it didn't answer him.

"Well, fate is fate." He mused aloud. "I'm not exactly a fatalistic person though." The silver-white dragon had wrapped herself into a complex knot and Draco paused to see her gracefully twist out of it again. Draco heaved a heavy sigh and closed his eye's trying not to think about what was going to happen to him any moment now.

"Master Malfoy?" a small squeaky voice drifted up from the foot of his bed interrupting his thoughts. He could just see the tips a little green ears poking up between his feet.

Draco shifted on the bed so that he was now lying on his stomach and his head was at the foot. He looked over the edge of the mattress at the little house elf. He sometimes wondered if house elves were concerned about breeding like wizards were and whether or not the size of their eyes was a factor to be considered when choosing a good mate. This one's name was Cappy and though not his favorite she wasn't as annoying as Dobby had been.

"What?" he asked.

"Master Malfoy is ordering Cappy to tell him when Professor Snape arrives and Professor Shape has arrived."

"Okay."

"Would Master Malfoy be wanting Cappy to fix his bed?" The house elves knew not to change his rooms without his expressed permission. When he made a mess sometimes he liked to wallow in it, the elves had learned to regret cleaning up before he was done.

"Sure." Draco yawned as he got out of bed, stretched, did a straitening spell on his cloths and then marched out of the room heading down the stairs and into the front entrance of the Manor where the limousine would be waiting.

As Draco walked he ran his hands along the molding of the walls, paused in front of every reflective surface to check that his hair and cloths were in order, and alternated between imitated Sev's intimidating stalk and then his father's brisk stride to see the difference in how they made his robes flow behind him. He decided on his father's stride since it was easier to imitate, if he relied on the stalk it could easily turn into a trudge if he lost concentration and that was unacceptable. Draco's own normal pace was considered to be at moderately quick, sometimes swaggering, saunter but that wouldn't get him to the entrance in under an hour and it was no longer fit for the head of house to slide down banisters and run to reach his destination, those were some of the very few misbehaviors his father had allowed him as a child. _No wonder Malfoy's never got fat they spent half their time walking miles in their own house_, thought Draco. Damn anti-apparition wards of his paranoid patronage and what was befitting behavior for the Lord of Malfoy Manor he had no time to waste striding around his house.

Draco turned the corner and grabbed a blue vase, he was too big to fit into any of the shoots located around the house but one good thing about the wards was that they didn't prevent inside port key's or flooing, both of which he shouldn't do because one was illegal and a bit dangerous and the other messed up your clothing. Draco pointed his wand at the vase, spoke the incantation and then found himself in the main entrance hall standing before Severus Snape. That was when his mark began to burn and the vase crashed to the ground.

* * *

In the middle of Grimmauld Place library Harry sat playing exploding snap with Ginny as Hermione and Ron did heaven knows what upstairs in his room. Why they couldn't use Hermione and Ginny's room he didn't know but it squiked him out to imagine his two best friends going at it ten feet from the place he had to sleep every night. Keeping those thoughts at bay was Harry's only purpose for playing exploding snap because to be honest even if the cards did explode the game got old after a certain amount of time. 

Really, Harry loved Ginny to death, thought of her as a sister and would do anything for her but she wasn't the same as Ron and Hermione. With Ron and Hermione there was always something to do, something to plan, something to talk about. It wasn't that Ginny was boring, on the contrary she could be as devious as the twins but she wasn't his best friends and it was different somehow, it was somehow easier to talk to Ron and Hermione because he wanted them to know everything, he wanted them to be able to understand him completely but with Ginny, and anyone else for that matter, Harry had absolutely no inclination to tell them anything more personal than his favorite color.

How many times last night had he laid awake with Ron sleeping right next to him and just wanted to wake the red head up, call Hermione in, and tell them everything that was on his mind. Every secret desire, speculation on Voldermort, doubt about the future and the war, and most importantly about the prophesy. Every time Hermione and Ron came around it was on the tip of his tongue and in the forefront of his mind to tell them everything

Harry had no idea what was stopping him but he knew it had something to do with what he thought their reaction would be. Hermione and Ron saw him as a person, everyone else saw him as an icon, a celebrity it was almost as if he weren't real to them, even his fellow house mates saw him as more than just plain old Harry. He was afraid that if he told them they would see him as everyone else did, as Harry Potter Savior of the Wizarding World. As it was they didn't expect him to be the one who had to go after Voldermort, to them he wasn't responsible for saving everyone's lives, maybe if they knew that in all actuality he was their perception of him would change. He wanted Ron and Hermione to know but he had no idea how to tell what their reactions would be or even what he would _want_ their reactions to be.

The main differences between Ginny and his best friends was that he would never want to tell her about the prophecy for the same reason he wanted to tell Ron and Hermione. Harry flat out didn't want Ginny to know about the prophecy and no matter how much time he spent with her he couldn't see that changing. So given the choice Harry would have preferred spending his time with Ron and Hermione but where were his best friends? Well they were up in his room not ten feet from his bed doing God probably doesn't want to know what and you could sure as hell bet that Harry didn't want to either.

"Is there anything else we could be doing?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, you could study." Ginny pointed out and stopped the game to glance at the huge stacks of books Mrs. Weasly had gotten them all. Hermione insisted on learning everything there was to know about every one of her subjects before she actually took them and while Mrs. Weasly was out getting her books she had decided to get everyone else's in hopes that they would follow Hermione's example.

Harry gave Ginny a look and went back to playing exploding snap.

"Yeah that's what I thought. Well, everyone who's coming for dinner should be here soon enough. Someone ought to tell Ron and Hermione to finish it off."

"What – Nevermind. " Harry thought about this for a moment then decided that anything was better than making Ginny spout more unwanted innuendo and continued playing the game of exploding snap.

Tonight would be the second meeting of the Order Harry would officially attend and he was looking forward to it but there was also the taint of apprehensive hanging over the whole affair. Like it would be easier if he just didn't have to attend for some reason, of course didn't want to skip out but if some unexpected event came up that prevented him from attending he wouldn't be too terribly disappointed.

"Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny!" Called Mrs. Weasley from the kitchen. "Come in here and help me set the tables."

Harry, glad for the opportunity to do something other than play exploding snap, swept up the cards and quickly made his way to the kitchen with Ginny in tow.

"What can we do Mrs. Weasley?" he asked

Mrs. Weasley didn't even bother turning around from the pot she was throwing ingredients into and stirring with her wand. "Oh just set the tables dears, I'd do it myself but I haven't a moment to spare. Plates are in the third cabinet to the left of the stove, top obviously and the silverwares in the drawer just under it. Oh, and if you could put out napkins and glasses too. You'll need a bowl for each of them as well set up about twenty places and that should do it."

Harry and Ginny set about walking back and froth from the kitchen to the dinning room grabbing the slightly chipped plates out of the cupboard and putting them down between lightly tarnished silverware then making their way back to the kitchen for another load.

Harry wasn't looking forward to the dinner or the meeting that would follow. He had seen enough of Draco Malfoy and Snape in one week to last him far longer than the rest of the summer. Last time had been trying enough and talking to Dumbledore afterwards would have been a slow type of torture if he hadn't had quite so much on his mind but now that things were relatively calm he realized he really didn't want to talk to the old man he used to think of as his mentor.

Eventually Ron and Hermione stumbled down the stairs and managed to look half way decent, Harry wasn't sure how much either of them would do, Hermione would never just throw herself at Ron without thinking about the consequences but Harry wasn't too sure what Ron wanted to do but he was sure he would go as far as Hermione let him.

* * *

Ron was up in his and Harry's room when he heard his mother calling himself and Hermione down to the kitchen. 

"Bloody hell!" he cursed under his breath breaking the kiss he and Hermione had been involved in. Ron thought they had finally gotten around to doing something other than kissing after nearly an hour of talking each other up to it.

"What?" asked Hermione, pulling away from Ron's embrace.

"Nothing." Ron said defiantly and took advantage of the fact that Hermione had not head the summons, for if she had she surely would have made them both head downstairs as fast as possible. Ron leaned forward to kiss her again but apparently she was having none of it.

"No, it wasn't Ron. What was that? Was someone calling us?"

"No, it was nothing, forget about it."

"Forget about what?"

"Whatever you think you heard."

Hermione gave Ron a disbelieving look but went back to kissing him softly despite her doubts. "Ron." She asked after a few minutes so suddenly that it startled him. "are you sure you didn't hear anything? Maybe I was just imagining it but it was your mother's voice and that would be very odd imagining your mothers voice at a time like this, wouldn't it?"

"Oh fine Hermione! My mum called us down to set the table, there. Get up lets get going."

"Oh my god! Ron! what are they going to think?" Hermione scrambled off the bed and down the stairs in a rush to dispel doubts in anyone's mind that what she was doing with Ron was not completely and totally proper.

Unfortunately when Ron and Hermione arrived more than a few minutes late they arrived at the very moment the twins popped out of the fireplace. Ron would have thought this was all well and in good fun if he hadn't know exactly what would happen.

"Hey guys!" he called to his two older brothers as soon as he entered the kitchen. "Charlie and Bill here yet?" he asked. It was a weak attempt at distraction and he knew that nothing could stop the twins short of a scolding by their mother, and even that was an unreliable weapon at the best of times, but he was willing to try anyway.

"And where have you been little brother?" asked Fred.

"up holding the family name, eh?" added George with what Ron guessed was a suggestive look.

"I have no idea what you two are talking about and we were just talking."

"Just talking were you?"

"is that what there calling it these days."

"Back in our time they just called it what it was."

"No need to be shy about it Ron, you're a man now."

"No I'm not!" _wait_... "Wait! Yes I am!" _no_... "No! I mean not that way!"

Thank Merlin that was the moment Bill flew through the fireplace followed a second later by Charlie.

"Meant that what way?" asked Bill.

"NOTHING!" Ron went into the dinning room before anyone else could ask any embarrassing questions, luckily Harry and Ginny were just finishing up putting down the plates.

"Hey Ron." Said Ginny amiably. "So where have you and Hermione been all this time?"

"Oh not you too!"

And that was the way it when for some time until all the guests arrived, well all but two, and nobody was missing Snape and Malfoy. Thank Merlin Dumbledore didn't chime in with his two sicles about anything, that would have been incredibly uncomfortable.

Ron sat at the long dinning table with Hermione on one side and Harry on the other slowly picking away at the food on his plate trying not to stare at the new DADA teacher. He was introduced by Dumbledore as Professor Norton and judging by his accent he was from the States. Apparently Dumbledore couldn't find anyone left in England who wanted the job.

Professor Norton was very tall and thin, tan with dark blue eyes, had a long, thin, pointy face, long skinny nose, very short receding hair, and was around the age of twenty seven or so. Ron thought he sounded very authoritative talking to Charlie about the small Casashadow dragons of northern Mexico so maybe he wasn't as much of an idiot as most of the other DADA teachers.

Bill was being told by Ron's mum, along with Harry, that both of them should be given a good haircut and both were vehemently saying that neither of them indented to do any such thing.

Ron was happy to hold Hermione's hand under the table but she wouldn't let him put it in her lap and the twins kept giving him meaningful glances and he was apprehensive of them giving him a talking to about upholding the family name by producing as many children as possible but not to do it until after he had married her. He also thought they intended to teach him a few good protection charms but really, if Hermione had any intention of going father than kissing he was sure she would know every contraceptive potion ever created so there were no worries coming from that direction.

Ron looked over at Harry and saw his best friend glancing up and down the table as if looking for someone who should be there but wasn't and looking anywhere but Dumbledore. Dumbledore was looking worried though Ron couldn't figure out why. Hermione was now looking at her food blushing lightly because of Fred and George's continuous overt innuendos and aside from giving Ron and Hermione knowing glances the twins were looking at each other silently congratulating one another about how they managed to give each item of food on the table some type of sexual connotation.

"Ron, did you spill the cream cheese on you pants again? And right after Hermione got it off the last time!" Shouted George across the table. One more thing out of one of their mouths and Ron swore to himself he'd throw a potato at them or something.

"Shut up!" Ron hissed at the twins, but all they did was look at one another and snigger.

Ron looked at Hermione and saw her recovering quickly from being extremely flustered and slowly becoming quite enraged. He thought that maybe she would beat him to pelting the twins with potatoes if he didn't watch her.

Ron gently squeezed his girlfriend's hand and looked around the table again. Dumbledore was talking with Charlie and Professor Norton, his parents were talking to Hermione's, Harry was giving his plate his complete attention, Tonks and some of the other Aurors were having a discussion about work, Bill was looking at the twins and Ron was pretty sure his eldest brother knew exactly what was going on, Ginny was looking as if she knew as well, no body was looking when the fireplace in the kitchen flared and Snape and Malfoy tumbled out of it in full death eater garb but everyone heard it.

**

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A/N: Sorry that took a so long to get out but to make up for it it's extra long! These damn hurricanes are coming at least once a week (What the hell is up with that?!) and power's not all that reliable. AIR CONDITIONING AND ENTERTAINMEN!!! That's all I ask. A little a/c and some TV, please, I can live without the food! I'll be so happy when this damn hyperactive hurricane seasons is over but damn it it's still only the beginning of October. Well, enough of my griping, hope you liked the fresh perspectives. Believe me most of this fic will be either Harry or Draco third limited and everything starts speeding up and gaining momentum after this, sorta took a while. Anyway thanks for reading, hope you liked it, please review.


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